Should governments be able to block websites?

[Zach]

Recently, a popular piracy site in the UK was blocked after the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) won a court case. Many people feel that this was unjust, that people should be allowed to read (and download) whatever material they want as a part of the "right to freedom of speech" principle. They felt that this right was violated when the government blocked the website. Do you think that governments should be able to restrict citizens from browsing certain sites? Why do you think this?
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I think that governments should not restrict the websites that their citizens visit. First of all, it does violate free speech. If a government shut down a bookstore for containing offensive books, the public outcry would be immense. That is basically the same thing as closing down a website for containing items which a particular group may find offensive. Also, if a website contains actual illegal content (e.g. child pornography or pirated material), the government should go after the actual people who are responsible, not after a domain name or an IP address. There is also another problem with "only" censoring illegal content: the slippery slope. Governments tend to never be satisfied with their original field of duty. What starts out as a reasonable blocking of illegal things may quickly develop into the censorship of any material the government finds unsuitable for the masses, as is the case with the Great Firewall of China.