Final answer:
Censorship of or punishment for the expression of ideas before they are made public is referred to as prior restraint, which is the most severe form of government censorship and is only permissible under extreme circumstances.
Step-by-step explanation:
Censorship and Prior Restraint
The concept of prior restraint refers to the government's action to prohibit speech or the expression of ideas before they are made public. This form of censorship is considered the most severe intrusion on First Amendment rights. The government bears a heavy burden in constitutional law to justify such actions, which are only permissible under the most extreme circumstances. Prior restraints have an immediate and irreversible impact on free speech by 'freezing' it. Rather than preemptively limiting speech, civil or criminal proceedings after the fact are considered the appropriate avenue for dealing with potentially defamatory or illegal speech.
The right to freedom of expression includes the right to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but it is not absolute. Speech that may incite criminal acts, issue threats, or is deemed defamatory is not protected under the First Amendment. Importantly, freedom of the press is closely linked to the concept of prior restraint, as seen in landmark cases like Near v. Minnesota and the Pentagon Papers, which reaffirmed the high threshold for government censorship of the press.
In answering the question posed by the student, censorship of or punishment for the expression of ideas before they are spoken or printed is referred to as censorship and specifically prior restraint (c).