[Havoc]

What do you think about censorship? Do you think other people should have the right to tell you what you can and can not watch, hear or express? Yes? No? And why?

I'm bringing this up because of a local issue here in good old Holland. A little while ago I read a news report about a certain telephone and internet provider refusing to block a list of webpages marked by the police as 'sites displaying child pornography without doubt'. The official response from the provider was that 'it's not their bussiness to fight child pornography and aside from that they don't believe in this kind of censorship'.
At first I didn't really get it. Why would a provider, why would anyone not grab a chance to block sites like this? However as I thought about it the provider might have had a point. For one by blocking them other sites will no doubt spawn and the police won't have any track over those sites. But more importantly, if you start to censor things like this then one could ask what's next? If it's up to the authorities to decide what should be censored and what shouldn't then next could be political websites expressing a certain opinion, religious websites devoted to a religion not supported by these individuals, websites that are seen as terrorism or somehow have something to do with this.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't advocate child pornography in any way but out of basic principle I think the internet provider made the right call in not blindly obeying the police and censoring everything. Not because they deem child pornography acceptable, but to prevent censorship from becoming a normal thing that can be applied to just about anything officials want.