Is Not Censorship Morality in Media receives many inquiries from the public requesting information about pornography and about sex, violence, or vulgarity in the mainstream entertainment media.
Censorship does exist in many countries.
In totalitarian lands, newspapers and the broadcast media publish only what the government wants the public to know. However, with a few exceptions, censorship is unconstitutional in the United States. Enforcement of the Federal or State obscenity laws is NOT censorship because, first of all, the government is exercising no prior restraint on the pornographers. The porn purveyors are free to publish whatever they want, but if what they distribute or exhibit is obscene, they are, after the fact, subject to prosecution under the obscenity laws. Second, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that obscenity is NOT a First Amendment right.