Freedom of speech is one of the important rights of an individual in today's society. It is the right that enables people to state, exchange, and debate their opinions freely. Unfortunately, freedom of speech is being limited by censorship in many different parts of society, including university campuses.
Universities are intended to be the places for independent thinking. In order to share the outcomes of independent thinking, there should be the freedom of speech. Freedom of speech also maintains the freedom for debating any topic—controversial or not—that is crucial, because debating helps individuals question the ideas that they believe and broadens their horizon by learning more about different points of view. Censoring leads the formation of new taboos, and more taboos hold individuals back from mentioning, discussing, and questioning. Since the universities are the places for new ideas and innovation, setting any limit to the thinking in those campuses would contradict with their aims.
The problems arise when the freedom of speech clashes with the freedom to not be offended. One of the most popular examples is the Mohammed cartoons that were published in Jyllands-Posten magazine. The cartoons created a big controversy between the Muslim world and the Danish cartoonists: Muslims claimed that picturing Mohammed was blasphemous while Danish cartoonists argued the freedom of speech. The controversy was brought up again when Yale University Press decided to expunge the Mohammed cartoons from a scholarly book "Cartoons That Shook The World" written by Jytte Klausen. Yale defended the self-censorship by saying they didn't want to incite violence by publishing the images. I think the censorship was not suitable, because universities are intended to be the places of free thinking and free speech. Censoring a scholarly book is far from unacceptable in a university, because in some way, it is setting limits to sharing knowledge. Nevertheless the situation changes when it comes to publishing the caricatures in the magazine. I am an atheist, so I wasn't offended by the cartoons at all; however, I am from Turkey (where 99% of the population is Muslim) and I saw the reactions of Muslims closely. My opinion was "If you are offended by the cartoons, you don't have to read it, but you also have the freedom of speech, which you can use to express your feelings about the cartoons.". The problem of censorship on college campuses was brought up again when Yale banned t-shirts with F. Scott Fitzgerald quotes. I think it is a negative impact on the freedom of speech. Students should be able to quote whatever that reflects their opinions.
I never support the idea of censorship, because I think it is an individual's right to know what he/she wants to know. I believe it is disrespectful to the individuals to have a government, management, or any kind of administration to decide what is suitable for the individual to know, and it is threatening for the new generation's perception of freedom. Especially in university campuses, where it is the place for free thinking, the freedom of speech should never be limited with censorships, because it contradicts with the aims of the universities.
