Commentary By Mike Zaman

Censorship is the suppression of speech or other forms of communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general public as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

Censorship is not only wrong, it is illegal!

Censorship was originally practiced by the Catholic religion:

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (”List of Prohibited Books”) was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. The final (20th) edition appeared in 1948, and it was formally abolished on 14 June 1966 by Pope Paul VI.

Are we now going to revert to the dark ages, or will we remain an enlightened society, the choice is yours.

Censorship in general is antagonistic of our right to Free Speech which is guaranteed by our First Amendment.

Yet, in the face of free speech, the states have forced Craigslist to close the adult services section of its website, replacing it with a black bar that says “censored,”

How and why has this come about?

A group of state attorneys general said there weren’t enough “protections” against blocking “potentially” illegal ads promoting prostitution. However the State has gone beyond prohibiting illegal acts to prohibiting even lawful ones. There was no substantial evidence of illegal ads appearing…

Yet sites on the web, do not block defamatory uploads or remove them when notified, and this appears to be permissible, so defamation is in and adult ads are out.

Craigslist entire adult section was closed. Certainly prostitution is illegal, but so is censorship, a form of prior restraint. The question must be asked here how many illegal ads were found on craigslist.

The US Public according to the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals has a First Amendment right to lie, and censorship has never been allowed as against free speech rights. Something appears to be amiss here, we can lie, but we can’t look at adult ads!

We have abundant pornography available, but the State attorneys General who apparently have nothing better to do, tackle Craigslist and coerce censorship.

The states have used economic pressure to coerce craigslist to shut down the adult site rather than to face millions of dollars in legal fees. Will eHarmony be next, on the religious premise that single adults just might have sex?

What is concerning is the fact that NOT one of these 17 state lawyers have taken on the banks over their fraud in lending, and in the amount of foreclosures, or the economic crash, but have taken on craigslist instead, it seems stare priorities are a little backwards here.

In an Aug. 24 letter, the state attorneys general said Craigslist should remove the section because it couldn’t adequately block potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution and child trafficking. To this we ask is this craigslist’s responsibility or is it the responsibility of parenting, and the state. Surely if such ads are really being placed on craigslist it would give law enforcement thumbs up to track the criminal activity of either prostitution or child trafficking, and if so to actually retrieve some of our missing children.

Again we ask, while we agree with the “potential” danger, whose job is it to prevent these form of crimes, craigslist or the policing authorities.

Child trafficking certainly is a heinous crime, and by all means it should be arrested, but censorship is not the answer. Once we open this gate, it may be impossible to contain the flood that will flow upstream.

This action violates the right of craigslist and their subscribers Free Speech

Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation, or both. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used, and regardless of the content even though it may have a “potential”, real or imagined, for some forbidden act.

The right to freedom of speech is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The ICCPR recognizes the right to freedom of speech as “the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression”. Furthermore freedom of speech is recognized in European, inter-American and African regional human rights law.

But not by 17 Attorneys General!

Whether you agree or disagree with an adult site, or even read it, like pornography they have a right to provide content, without censorship.

A prime example; automobiles are used for the purpose of committing crime, if we had no automobiles we would eliminate robbery, therefore all cars must be abolished, if this sounds idiotic, so does censorship because it “might” lend itself to ads for prostitution.

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Tags: Attorneys General, Censorship, Craigslist, First Amendment, First Amendment right to lie, freedom of expression, Freedom of Speech, suppression of speech, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 at 8:42 am and is filed under Top News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.