Should Politicians be Allowed to Restrict the Release of Videos of Themselves in Public

Date Written: 11/21/2022

Assignment: Write 250 words on this topic: “Should the police be allowed to enforce a politician’s verbal restriction against making a video of him at an open meeting?”

Today politicians are very skittish when they’re in public; people ask them tough questions that they don’t want to answer. On top of that, people are always videoing them, so that there answer or lack of one is available for all to see. In the past, it wasn’t as big of a deal if politicians answered questions or not because their answer would only be heard by a few people. With the invention of the mobile phone people can now video them, so that the whole world can see. To get around this politicians will sometimes have police not allow people to video them while they are in public.

Why This is Bad

This action is a violation of our right to freedom of the press. When the politicians do this they prevent people from freely spreading potentially critical information. For example, a politician could be asked “what is your stance on taxes Mr. Jones?” This is a important question and the politician’s answer will most likely be very important to many people. It is a good thing that people video a politician’s answer to questions like these. It allows more people to make an informed decision on whether or not they should vote for that particular politician.

In most cases, politicians want to restrict the release of videos like these; they don’t want the public to know that their views are likely not in line with the public’s. For example, imagine a politician said he wanted to raise taxes. If a video of him saying this got out to the public many people wouldn’t vote for him. Politicians always want as many votes as possible, so they try to restrict these videos.

Clearly, politicians should not be allowed to have police infringe on our right to freedom of the press. Voters need videos like these to know which politician to elect to office. Therefore, politicians shouldn’t be allowed to have police restrict the release of these videos.