Holding Publishers Liable: What’s Wrong with the SAVE Act
Congressional efforts to punish online sex trafficking are overbroad, counterproductive and will chill free speech.
Making Dinesh D’Souza Mandatory Viewing in Florida Schools?
A Florida lawmaker who last year introduced a bill strengthening local control over public schools wants to make a right-wing documentary required viewing.
2013 YFEP Film Contest: “Video Games in the Crosshairs”
Our theme in 2013 was “Video Games in the Crosshairs.” We invited teens 19 and younger to reflect on gaming and respond to those who trumpet a single narrative about video games and media violence. We asked them to show us why gaming matters, what attracts young people to it, what role it plays in our culture and to explore [...]
Reading About Poverty in Highland Park
Last year's battle over books in a Texas school district isn't over. Now a parent is challenging a book about the lives of poor people.
No Ugly Talk: Why One Alabama Superintendent Barred High Schoolers from Watching Selma
As a number of schools across the country let students watch Ava DuVernay’s rapturously acclaimed Selma for free, one school in Alabama didn’t let its students see the movie at all. The reason? The film contains profanity and “racial slurs.”
Two Wins for Free Speech in Delaware
Good news from Delaware: One school district dropped a plan to limit students' access to certain books, and in another district the effort to alter health curriculum in accord with religious objections appears to have failed.
Professor Labeled a ‘Threat’ for Criticizing University Leadership Files Lawsuit
Last January, we reported on the story of Tim McGettigan, a sociology professor at Colorado State University–Pueblo (CSU-Pueblo) who was an outspoken critic of the administration’s financial management. After CSU-Pueblo President Lesley DiMare informed faculty and staff in December 2013 that “as many as 50 positions at CSU Pueblo” could be eliminated to compensate for a $3.3 million budgetary shortfall, McGettigan sent out a series of mass emails to the CSU-Pueblo community passionately expressing his concerns and encouraging students and faculty to peacefully protest the planned layoffs. But when McGettigan, in a January 17, 2014 email, invoked metaphorical imagery from […]
The post Professor Labeled a ‘Threat’ for Criticizing University Leadership Files Lawsuit appeared first on FIRE.
Hebdo, Hypocrisy and Mendacity
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, there are plenty of serious questions to ask about the state of free speech in France--and everywhere else.
First Amendment, Civil Liberties Groups Condemn Proposed Policy Changes in Virginia
Hanover School District’s Fix Could Actually Make Things Worse NEW YORK, January 13, 2015 — The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is cautioning school officials in Hanover County, VA that policy changes intended to reduce complaints about instructional materials could actually do the opposite. At a school board meeting tonight, three changes to board policies are being mulled over in response to controversies surrounding the use [...]
NCAC Writes to Hanover, VA: School District’s Fix Could Actually Make Things Worse
School officials resisted a challenge to a documentary film. But their new policies on instructional materials, while intended to reduce complaints, could actually do the opposite--giving would-be censors more power over what is taught in class.
First Amendment Groups Say No to Proposed Book Rating Policy in Appoquinimink
National Coalition Against Censorship Contact: Peter Hart 212.807.6222 // c: 732.266.4932 // [email protected] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: First Amendment Groups Say No to Proposed Book Rating Policy in Appoquinimink NEW YORK, January 12, 2015 — The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is urging Delaware's Appoquinimink School District against adopting potentially restrictive book assignment and checkout policy. The district’s new system proposes to [...]
NCAC to Appoquinimink: Don’t Adopt Restrictive Book Policies!
Update: Victory for KRRP! The Appoquinimink School District has chosen not to implement new rules that would have allowed parents to sign forms barring their children from reading anything deemed too “mature.”
Charlie Hebdo and Media Self-Censorship
Many US media outlets are reporting on the Charlie Hebdo massacre--but pointedly avoiding showing the images at the center of the story.
Charlie Hebdo Massacre: A Shocking Attack on Free Expression
The failure to stand up for free expression emboldens those who seek to attack and undermine it.
It’s Starting to Get Chilly
And I’m not talking about the frosty weather hitting New York City this week. A new report by NCAC coalition member PEN American Center, “Global Chilling: The Impact of Mass Surveillance on International Writers” finds that government surveillance in democratic countries is chilling free speech, driving novelists, editors, poets, and journalists to self-censor their work. The numbers are particularly frightening: 75% [...]