Censorship It is undeniable that censorship is an issue which has given rise over time to countless arguments and debates.

The control of the information and ideas which passed within a society has been practiced since ancient times, the aims of censorship mainly consisting of giving protection to three basic social institutions: the family, the state and the church. Although it has generally been regarded as a mark of dictatorship, censorship is present in both democratic and non-democratic countries, but in varying proportions. To begin with, since every country has secrets which could endanger the population if fallen into the wrong hands, governments have the power to restrict access of wide public to certain information. For example, information concerning areas such as the armed forces or particular aspects of foreign policy is usually kept under lock and key. In addition to this, censorship supporters point out that in media, including newspapers, TV and internet, censorship really proves helpful, so that false leading news and advertisements are avoided. False news, especially economic and political news, can lead to severe consequences, such as the occurrence of inflation on the financial market, which will destabilize the economic balance of a society. What is more, books, films and music which contain abusive scenes or harmful information, as well as promoting violence, vulgarity and obscenity are undoubtedly not proper material for children, so censorships role is irreplaceable in such situations. On the other hand, the opponents claim that censorship is an unjustifiable restriction of public access to information and as a general tendency governments are turning it into an instrument through which they try to misinform society and maintain power. Moreover, persons that are unhappy with censorship state that it has no place in a truly democratic society, due to the fact that it compromises the freedom of speech and it prevents the free flow of ideas. Besides, they claim that censorship represent a barrier against creativity and globalization and an infringement to basic human rights. To sum up, censorship is a necessity even in modern society, because used properly, it serves as a valuable tool to maintaining the general security of population. Still, it can also be easily misused, so one possible solution would be the update of this mechanism according to modern society requirements.