In September 2004, publishing trade groups and authors' organizations filed suit in federal court to strike down regulations of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control that effectively bar U.S. publishers from publishing books and journal articles originating in countries such as Iran, Cuba and Sudan that are subject to U.S. trade embargoes.
Among the millions of documents the government has classified to protect national security is information about the favorite cocktail of the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and a joke about terrorists attacking Santa Claus.
Sex education in Texas is okay when abstinence is the message, according to the 15-member Texas Board of Education. Of the four textbooks under consideration, only one acknowledges condoms and none discusses other contraceptives.
NCAC will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Tuesday, November 16th at the exciting new Rubin Museum of Art in New York City which houses the largest collection of Himalayan art on display in the Western world.
On Nov. 7, the National Book Foundation will present author Judy Blume (left) with its annual medal for "distinguished contributions to American letters." She is the first author of books written primarily for children to receive the honor. Blume—a member of NCAC's Board of Directors—is one of the most censored authors in the US.
The 9th Circuit upheld a ruling by a French court to prevent Yahoo from circulating information about Nazi memorabilia, which is illegal in France. The decision potentially undermines Internet commerce by recognizing the jurisdiction of foreign courts in such disputes.
By the time you read this, the election season will, hopefully, be behind us. It would be a mistake, however, to forget the stench that accompanied it. Presidential debates were spun before they began, arranged to prevent the exchange of ideas, regulated to restrict what was seen, and designed to foreclose confrontation and follow-up.
On January 9, 2004 work from my series titled “Blue Things I Wear” was accepted into “The Open Show” at the University of San Diego as a part of the 15th annual Social Issues conference. On February 25, 2004, three days before I was to deliver the work for installation, I was informed that the Board overseeing this exhibit censored [...]
In September of 2000, Phil Coyle, then the Director of the DOD’s Office of Operational Test and Evaluation, testified in front of Congress about the national missile defense plan. In his testimony he was critical of the plan and included 50 recommendations on how the system should be tested and improved. Though the Congressional committee voted unanimously to enter Coyle’s [...]
AZ State University "Balances" Exhibition by Eliminating Art Critical of the Current Administration Phoenix, AZ Posted 8/23/2004 Democracy means open discussion, democracy means freedom to criticize the government, democracy means civic engagement…but for officials at Arizona State University, democracy means counter-balancing any criticism of the policies of the present administration with criticism of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. As [...]
Dear J. Robert Wills, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University, It has recently come to my attention that you and a few others (I’m sure the list will multiply endlessly) are responsible for censoring the work of several artists who, until recently, were slated to participate in an otherwise applause-worthy show titled "Democracy in [...]
August 16, 2004 Mayor John W. Hickenlooper 1437 Bannock Street, Ste. 350 Denver, Colorado 80202 Dear Mayor Hickenlooper, The National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations that collaborate to defend First Amendment rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, have been alerted to the recent removal of several works of art from an installation [...]
Copyright legislation grows increasingly restrictive with remarkable regularity. Copyright was recently extended to 70 years beyond a creator's death for individuals and to 95 years since inception for corporations. As the argument goes, "fair use"—the provision within copyright law allowing commentary or satire about a protected work—adequately balances free speech requirements and the right of an author to profit from [...]
by Tom Forsythe Free at last, or at least not saddled with over $2 million in battle costs. That's how much legal tender it took before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote a scathing opinion that called Mattel's case against me potentially 'unreasonable and frivolous.' From the time Mattel sued me on August 24, 1999 up until that December [...]
by Katherine Stapp NEW YORK, (IPS)—Anti-war messages are going up in Manhattan's Times Square in time for the Republican Party convention in August after the company that owns the billboards, media giant Clear Channel, backed down from its refusal to carry them. In a compromise, the group sponsoring the messages, Project Billboard, agreed to replace its original artwork, a stylised [...]
Remember Total Information Awareness? The Government Accounting Office reports that the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security may be utilizing private data bases, including credit card records and Internet logs, to gain information about ordinary citizens.
The Supreme Court upheld the injunction against the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), Congress' latest effort to prevent children from accessing "harmful" sexual material online, reiterating that the rights of adults cannot be sacrificed even to protect children.
The FBI recently confiscated books, computers and lab equipment from the home of Steven Kurtz, an art professor at the State University of NY at Buffalo and member of the internationally recognized art collective, Critical Arts Ensemble. CAE's work explores the politics of biotechnology, and the material found in Kurtz's home was part of its latest project,
Free Range Grains. Designed to test food products for possible genetic modification,
Free Range Grainswas scheduled to be shown at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art this summer. Instead, a sign describing the FBI action occupies its designated space.
A Boston College student was arrested near a military recruitment office in Boston for protesting US treatment of Iraqi detainees.
Last year, a Texas grand jury indicted Jaqueline Mercado for the 'lewd exhibition' of her breast and for inducing a child to engage in 'sexual conduct and sexual performance.
The Justice Department's disdain for constitutional rights has triggered resistance—in the Supreme Court, no less. As we go to press, the Court has just affirmed the right of individuals detained as "enemy combatants" to consult with lawyers and to contest the grounds for their detention before a neutral decision-maker.
Don't miss your chance to enter the Free Speech and Democracy Film Contest.
Mildred Jeffrey, a member of NCAC's Advisory Council since its inception, died in Detroit, Michigan in March.
The NCAC Board of Directors has elected new officers
One Year Ago: Notes From A Student Activist By Bretton Barber, Dearborn, MI It is my sincere hope that there will be a time in everyone's life that defines them. It may come during a time of peril, joy, or even ordinariness, when it is least suspected. For myself, that moment came one year ago this week in a time [...]
Professor Steve Kurtz was charged today by a federal grand jury in Buffalo, New York—not with bioterrorism, as listed on the Joint Terrorism Task Force's original search warrant and subpoenas, but with "petty larceny," in the words of Kurtz attorney Paul Cambria. (Click here for background.)
Steve Kurtz, an artist with the Critical Arts Ensemble, was working on Free Range Grain, the collective's latest art project that studied the politics of biotechnology, when laboratory materials that was part of the project was accidentally discovered in Kurtz's home. The materials were confiscated by the FBI and led to Mr. Kurtz being charged with bioterror The government [...]
Steve Kurtz's wife Hope died of a heart attack May 11. Steve, an associate professor of art at University at Buffalo, called 911. The police who came saw some of the materials for an art exhibit on genetic modification and called the FBI. The FBI came in, cordoned off half the block, confiscated Hope's s body, Steve's computer, his notebooks, his art supplies and their cat.
As organizations committed to artistic, intellectual, and academic freedom, we are concerned about the extended and apparently unwarranted investigation of Buffalo-based artist Steve Kurtz and the chilling effect it is likely to have on other artists or scholars whose work explores the border of art and science or employs harmless biological and chemical materials.
S. 2056, a bill to increase the penalties for transmission of "obscene, indecent, and profane material" by TV and radio broadcasters to $275,000 for each violation (from 27,000) is currently on the Senate Legislative Calendar.
Two members of the Advisory Council on Bioethics who supported stem-cell research were dismissed recently, bolstering charges that the administration manipulates science panels to suit policy.
By the time you read this, Congress will likely have increased the fines for broadcasting indecent material from $27,500 to $500,000 per occurrence, and violence will be included in the definition of indecency. Performers as well as broadcasters could be fined.
A Congressional effort to impose oversight power over some academic programs has passed in the House of Representatives and is being considered by a Senate committee. At issue are area studies programs which the federal government has funded to increase understanding of foreign cultures, languages and politics, and to overcome a shortage of translators and specialists in international affairs. HR 3077, the International Studies in Higher Education Act of 2003, intended to fund studies of strategic importance to the U.S., particularly targets Middle Eastern studies programs. It would establish an advisory board to oversee these programs, ostensibly to make sure that they are not "biased."
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in September, 2003, that trade embargoes apply to scientific and literary manuscripts by authors from Iran, Cuba, Iraq, Libya and Sudan unless they are "camera ready." Government permission would be needed even for routine edits such as correcting spelling or grammar, or reordering sentences and paragraphs.
The sculpture, Holier Than Thou, provoked heated criticism that it is offensive to Catholics. Critics say the Bishop's miter is overtly phallic and his expression too dour.
Your winter issue of Censorship News carried an article in Views on the News by Joan Bertin about campaign finance reform which states that "it is premature to declare the decision [by the Supreme Court, largely upholding the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002] a 'win' or a 'loss' for the First Amendment."
NCAC is sponsoring a national contest for young filmmakers on the theme of Free Speech and Democracy. The goal of the contest is to showcase the creative work of young people and to promote awareness of the basic principles of freedom.
As we go to press, the Federal Election Commission is poised to consider whether non-profits should be treated like "political committees," subject to funding and spending restrictions.
Jeremiah Gutman, a dedicated champion of the First Amendment and Chair of the National Coalition Against Censorship, died on February 25, 2004 in Westchester County, New York at age 80. He had been an officer of the Board of Directors of NCAC since the 1980s, first as General Counsel and then as Co-Chair before assuming the Chair in 2001.