- action | issues
- Academic Freedom
- Books
- Classrooms
- Copyright
- Film
- Government Secrecy
- Hate Speech
- Internet
- LGBT
- Libraries
- Music
- Nudity & Pornography
- Political Correctness
- Political Dissent
- Public Spaces
- Race Ethnicity Gender
- Radio & Television
- Religion
- Science
- Sex Education
- Theater & Performance
- Video Games
- Violence
- Visual Art
- Youth
- advocacy | projects
- education | resources
in support of free expression
The information presented here by the National
Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) may be freely redistributed in its entirety,
provided that readers are informed that the information was obtained from
NCAC's World Wide Web site and that credit is given to the appropriate source
of whatever information is used. Permission is expressly granted for the information
obtained to be made available for file transfer from installations offering
unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet. Information found here
may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without
the written permission from the National Coalition Against Censorship.
LAST UPDATED APRIL 2005
©Copyright 2005 NCAC
WEB DESIGN
Jeanne Criscola Criscola Design
NCAC Censorship News Issue #81:
The Long And The Short Of It
- In Utah, a full-time official enforces the state's obscenity
laws, and stores rent expurgated-only videos. "Porn
czar" Paula Houston will draft Utah's "moral nuisance law"
and a model law "to abate and discourage obscenity and pornography."
Video store owner Ray Lines rents videos stripped of sex,
sin, swearwords, nudity, and violence. Saving Private
Ryan, Schindler's List, and Titanic are
among the films edited to be Mormon-friendly.
- George W. Bush didn't intend to benefit Planned
Parenthood, but a grass roots protest spun from
his executive order denying federal funds to international
social agencies that counsel about or mention abortion,
even when self-financed. President's Day messages in the
form of contributions to Planned Parenthood criticized Bush
for denying critical health information to poor women and
for muzzling free speech in other countries.
- Wrestling fans are locked in a bout with the Parents
TV Council which is urging the FCC to ban wrestling
from the air waves and sponsors to stop ads. "I still have
never understood why things as simple as turning it off
are not part of the answer...," mused FCC Chairman Michael
Powell.
- Nassau Community College (NY) president, Sean Fanelli,
received this year's William J. Brennan, Jr. Award for his
refusal to cancel Christopher Durang's play, Sister Mary
Ignatius Explains It All To You in spite of bitter protests.
His leadership in protecting a course on human sexuality
that critics called "pornographic" and "anti-Catholic" also
prompted the award from the Thomas Jefferson Center for
the Protection of Free Expression.
- Biographies about gay and lesbian heroes in American
life are under attack in Orangeview (CA) Jr. High for spilling
the beans that gays can be notable. James Baldwin, Willa
Cather, John Maynard Keynes, and Martina Navratilova, are
among those some would put back in the closet.
- Schaumburg, IL Mayor Al Larson is no Rudy Giuliani. In
the face of protest against artist Dick Detzner's version
of The Last Supper, Mayor Larson supported the decision
of the Chicago Athenaeum to show the work. Detzner had substituted
images from cereal boxes for the Apostles and called his
work The Last Pancake Breakfast.
- At Penn State, a student event—Sex Faire—angered
state legislators who called the event "debauched" and threatened
funding cuts. NCAC organized an appeal to lawmakers to respect
students' constitutional rights (click here
for the text of our statement).
- NCAC welcomes our newest Participating Organization, Catholics for a Free Choice.