Update: As the Boston Herald reports, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree has issued a statement insisting that the Maine Department of Labor mural (removed in late March by order of Gov. Paul LePage), should be put back up in the Department so the state won’t have to repay to the federal government most of its $60,000 cost. She adds, "Public art [...]
When it comes down to it, most of the documents in Wikileaks's Cablegate release refer to issues that had already been covered in the press. Did we really need Wikileaks to tells us that Mexico isn’t doing a great job combating corruption and cartels? Or that the war in Afghanistan is going poorly? Or that Pakistan and North Korea and [...]
Though the U.S. military has occupied Afghanistan for nearly a decade, we have rarely received the opportunity to hear about the lives of every day Afghans from the mouths of everyday Afghans. On the eve of one such opportunity, the book tour of Afghani activist and politician Malalai Joya, the State Department decided to deny her a visa. In 2007, Joya’s brave [...]
NCAC participating organization, People For the American Way, has developed a detailed summary of the events around Hide/Seek complete with suggestions as to "what to do next time." PFAW was one of the organizations who signed NCAC's joint letter to the Smithsonian Board of Regents (PDF download). Click here to read the PFAW report online.
NCAC participating organization, People for the American Way, has developed a detailed summary of the events around Hide/Seek complete with suggestions as to "what to do next time." PFAW was one of the organizations who signed NCAC's joint letter to the Smithsonian Board of Regents
Button brought back from the March 2011 Culture Wars symposium with the Corcoran and Transformer DC.
We all believe in free speech, but does that mean anything goes? What about the speech that offends us, makes us cringe, and provokes our anger (and desire to censor)? Is there anything that should be outlawed in art, films, books, music, video games, TV, or online? Is free speech an all or nothing proposition or something in between? These films explore what kind of speech, if any, should be censored, and why. Our participants this year were compelling, provocative and we're honored to have them.
Earlier this week, Maine Governor Paul LePage ordered that a mural in the Department of Labor depicting scenes from Maine’s labor be removed. Why? Because the mural “sends a message that we’re one-sided, and I don’t want to send that message.” Of course – why else would the Department of Labor have a mural of labor history, if [...]
**Update: Videos added** On Saturday, March 26, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, along with partners Transformer and NCAC presented a symposium examining past and present debates about freedom of expression and public support for the arts.
One family is the source of complaints that have, to date, removed two books from course reading lists at Bedford High School. Rather than creating procedures to avoid parental complaints, the school district needs a process for handling complaints and providing alternative reading materials to objecting families -- without depriving the rest of the school access to literary works.
It's scary how timely The Education of Shelby Knox, a documentary chronicling a high school student’s campaign to bring alternatives to abstinence-only education to her school in Lubbock, Texas, is even to us today.
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with several other human rights and civil liberties organizations, sent a letter today to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King (R-NY) expressing deep concern about his committee’s upcoming hearing on the so-called “radicalization of the American Muslim community.” The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, March 10.
Censorship is about who has permission to speak about what in public. Women, both as speakers and subject, have often been marginalized or stricken from the public sphere, and so we'd like to provide some choice selections from NCAC's work on censorship as it specifically impacts women.
In a victory for academic freedom, the Tribunal de Grand Instance de Paris has ruled against a libel case brought against Prof. Joseph Weiler for GlobalLawBooks.org's review of The Trial Proceedings of the International Criminal Court. ICTY and ICTR Precedents, by Dr Karin N. Calvo-Goller. The judge ruled that Calvo-Goller engaged in forum shopping by selecting France as the venue [...]
The Texas Civil Rights Project has released a fascinating, detailed report on the nearly 12,000 books banned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from entering the state's prison system. The arbitrary nature of the list, including Shakespeare's sonnets and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Wistlestop Cafe, defies any security-based explanation. Check out the searchable Zoho spreadsheet to see if [...]
The Price of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance, produced in 2005, is NCAC's DVD highlighting art censorship controversies throughout the 20th century. It premiered at the art exhibit "Potentially Harmful: The Art of American Censorship" at Georgia State University.
The latest billboard controversy, around the removal of a billboard paid for by a Texas anti-abortion group from an advertising space in SoHo, owned by Lamar Advertising, comes as no surprise. In 2006 Lamar refused to run photographs by Polish artist Karolina Bregula that show same-sex couples holding hands. The photographs were to be displayed as part of a Real [...]
