Is State Sponsored Censorship Ever Justified?

“So many new ideas are at first strange and horrible though ultimately valuable that a very heavy responsibility rests upon those who would prevent their dissemination (J.B.S. Haldane).” Whether parents are censoring material for their children or the media is presenting to the public only the things it deems newsworthy, a nearly infinite amount of censorships are being exercised every day around the world. More significantly, every legislator or person of political power …

…have a certain set of freedoms, and with any freedom comes the ability to make incorrect choices. As long as governments are reflective of parents and believe their people are capable of wrong decisions they will exercise censorship. Some of it we would call appropriate. Whatever the case may be, it must always be assumed that censorship is wrong unless the benefits outweigh the negatives. Then again, who is really justified to make such judgments?