Hearings this week, held by the new Democratic chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman, have documented long-standing charges that the White House routinely injects political considerations into the work of federal science agencies in an attempt to censor government scientists and mislead the public about the extent of the danger posed by [...]
On January 30, 2007, the Oversight Committee heard testimony from a number of leading climate change scientists regarding allegations that officials edited scientific reports and made other efforts to interfere with the work of government scientists who study climate change.
A recent, troubling incident involving an art exhibition sponsored by the Centro Cultural Aztlan in San Antonio, Texas merits your attention and voice in opposition to attempts to limit artistic expression. A piece by artist Anna-Marie Lopez, initially selected for display in the Centro’s annual tribute to the Virgen de Guadalupe, was rejected shortly before the opening of the exhibition. [...]
Below is NCAC's letter to the Centro Cultural Aztlan; for background, click here. The recent removal of Anna-Marie Lopez's work from a show at the Centro Cultural Aztlan has shaken belief in the Centro’s real commitment to the representation of a diversity of Chicano voices and has led many in the community to suspect that the Centro is censoring artists’ [...]
Thomas Murphy, Superintendent Federal Way No. 210 31405 - 18th Ave. S. Federal Way WA 98003 Dear Superintendent Murphy: We have been following with interest the controversy over the Federal Way School Board's recent decision to declare a "moratorium" on showing the film, "An Inconvenient Truth," to students in your school district. We believe such a decision not only [...]
January 9, 2007 Mr. Ned Crouch, Director Customs House Museum & Cultural Center P.O. Box 383 Clarkesville, TN 37041-0383 Re: William Gentry Exhibit Dear Mr. Crouch, I am writing on behalf of the National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations united in defense of free expression, regarding the recent removal of the William Gentry art [...]
Recent cases weighed the First Amendment principle of the free transmission of information against competing considerations of national security and personal privacy.
During the 25th annual Banned Books Week in late September, a Houston-area parent challenged Fahrenheit 451 – a book about reading and thinking freely. “It’s just all kinds of filth,” he claimed, admitting later that he had not read it.
In FCC v. Pacifica (1978), the Supreme Court created an exemption to First Amendment law when it upheld the authority of the Federal Communications Commission to regulate “indecent” broadcast material, defined as “language that describes, in terms patently offensive ... sexual or excretory activities and organs.” However, the Court cautioned the FCC to “exercise [its] authority with the utmost restraint, lest we inhibit constitutional rights.”
Recently, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Massachusetts et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case questioning whether the EPA is obliged to regulate carbon dioxide, a major component of greenhouse gases, as an air pollutant. What the casual observer might not realize is that the case is also about censorship and the distortion of science for political purposes. ...