| The goal of the thesis was to research the legal concerns that arise from state censorship of media and see how that censorship can affect homeland security. The regimes of Nazi Germany and present day Iran were compared and utilized as templates, along with general introductions into censorship and propaganda themselves. The aspects of censorship and propaganda were then applied to the standards of international law and sovereign law in order to determine their legitimacy.;Through the use of journals, video footage, articles, and books, a comparison was made to show how the suppression of the freedom of expression is a violation of international standards and leads to other human rights offenses. This censorship, which in turn becomes a tool of the governments when combined with propaganda, becomes a major security risk both at home and abroad.;Both regimes made great use of censorship, however, only one truly succeeded. An attempt will be made to determine why one regime failed and the other succeeded, and whether despite this failure, such censorship still acts as a risk to homeland security. An analysis will be made to describe the ways in which a program of censorship can also affect the censoring countries, as well as security of countries abroad. A description will be made on possible ways to deal with propaganda, as well as an argument for empowering moderate and orthodox Muslims as the best option to counteract fundamentalists. |
