essay - GMAT Analysis of an Issue1

Question:
In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive language and behavior. In other countries, there is little or no censorship.

In your view, to what extent should government or any other group be able to censor television or radio programs? Explain, giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your position.

Answer:
I know both types of the country; the United States of America is a typical example for a country whose government has almost no censorship; China, conversely, is a typical example for a country whose government has strict censorship on its media. After explaining and demonstrating both types of censorship using these two countries as the examples, I'll state my conclusion on this issue, which is that government should minimize its censorship to a reasonable extent.

The United States of America found on democracy and liberty. Its people have been enjoying freedom and equality, although there were clear exceptions such as slavery and racial discrimination. I often watch their television program ranging from political news to sitcom. When watching the TV, I always feel in this country there's no taboo or prohibition. For example, at a TV drama named "Friends", people talk about gay or surrogate pregnancy in a light-hearted way. There's a fundamental environment in the country to express anything even considered taboo in other countries.

On the other hand, the United States of America has a problem stemming from its censorship policy. It's too free. For instance, sex and violence are everywhere in the country, and this fact surely affects its people's behaviour. As a tragic example, school shooting at Columbine High School happened years ago in the country can be considered the result of this no censorship policy. We can easily imagine the criminals spent their lives watching violent movies and TV programs, which affected their mental attitude. This is a negative aspect of the country's censorship policy.

I traveled to China two years ago. Although I knew there was censorship in the country even before traveling there, I found a lot of clear evidences that the government exacted censorship and the effects of the censorship through the trip. First of all, I was surprised at the fact that there are nearly no sex and violent materials, as I visited one of bookstores in Beijing. There was no pornography in the shelf at all; on the contrary, in Japan, my country, there are many porno magazines at almost all convenience stores that exist more than 10,000 nationwide. I saw the fact a good aspect of censorship generally thought as a bad system.

I believe, however, that censorship by government clearly has a dangerous aspect that might suppress its people's freedom of expression. Furthermore, there's a possibility of educating its people in a wrong direction. For example, a string of turmoil relating Tibet happened before China Olympic clearly showed us the serious effects of censorship. I couldn't believe why Chinese people strongly believed their justice on Tibet affairs, before I realized that the attitude came from their education the government imposed to them with limited and skew information about its incursion to Tibet after the World War II. This is a serious damage of censorship for its nation.

As a conclusion, except for some areas where censorship are clearly required such as child porn and racial discrimination, I think that government should not censor on its media and should think freedom of expression a vital right of people in this contemporary era, in which people can live for their happiness through knowing the truth of the world.