The Hugh M. Hefner Foundation will give its First Amendment Lifetime Achievement Award to Joan Bertin, longtime Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship.
Fun Home is under attack again, this time in a New Jersey High School.
A group called the Concerned Parents of San Diego held their children from school to protest the district's Sexual Health Education Program, SHEP. Among the material the group finds objectionable is the award-winning It's Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris.
The National Coalition Against Censorship has joined with 35 other organizations, including Free Press, ACLU and Color of Change, in calling upon the DHS to release its unredacted memos known as the "Race Paper" and the “Growing Frequency of Race-Related Domestic Terrorist Violence.”
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Despite winning an award in pre-show judging, a painting by blind painter Annie Young that takes on the difficult subject of police violence against people of color proved too controversial for display by the Burnsville Visual Arts Society at the Ames Center.
Student journalists at Prosper High School wrote to their Superintendent to protest the dismissal of their journalism instructor and the repeated censorship of editorial pieces in the student publication, Eagle Nation Online.
The University of Southern Maine has removed three works following a complaint to the university, citing the painter's previous conviction for sexual offenses. NCAC is urging the university to restore the works.
Resources with useful tips and strategies for students, artists and any activists seeking to drive social change through civic engagement.
The Aurora Public Library has removed a poem entitled "Hijab mean Jihad" from a display after community members complained.
NCAC joins PEN America and 31 other prominent arts organizations in urging the Supreme Court to strike down the third version of the Trump travel ban issued in September 2017. The case will receive a hearing in the Supreme Court on April 25.
The Belskie Museum of Art in northern New Jersey has ejected an invited artist from its exhibit for painting on US flags.
The National Coalition Against Censorship continues its support of student-led protests by extending the deadline for its protest-themed film contest to May 15th. This year’s contest invites aspiring teen filmmakers to create short films on the value of protest as an instrument of social change. In the weeks leading up to the March for Our Lives and National School Walkouts [...]
(Photo: Masha George/Flickr/cc) NCAC joins PEN America and 31 other prominent arts organizations to jointly file a friend of the court brief in the case of State of Hawaii v. Trump, urging the Supreme Court to strike down the third version of the Trump travel ban issued on September 27, 2017. Executive Order (EO) 13780 bans all immigration from six majority Muslim [...]
After anonymous complaints about brief images of sexual acts in an avant-garde film shown in class, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design launched a sexual harassment investigation. Saul Levine, the professor teaching the class and the target of the investigation, who is also a well-regarded avant-garde filmmaker, resigned in protest. This incident raises serious concerns beyond the individual case.
Early last Tuesday morning (March 6), the Kalamazoo City Commission voted 5-1 to remove Fountain of the Pioneers. The decision follows a flurry of recent protests by local activist groups, indigenous people, residents and historians. NCAC is concerned by the swiftness of this decision and cautions that such determinations should not be made in hasty emotional response to complaints.
NCAC has joined a large group of organizations in opposing the continued, and growing, threats to openness, ethics and accountability created by a culture of secrecy in the US government. NCAC and its cosignatories have designated this week, which should celebrate public access to information, the Eclipse of Sunshine Week.
As millions of American students assert their First Amendment rights in protests across the country, National Coalition Against Censorship partnered with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to release a new comic book to help protect students' rights.
While the bill's sponsors contend that it aims to stop sex trafficking, the bill does not help sex trafficking victims confront their abusers but does significantly curtail online speech.
Administrators at a Delaware school district have removed Facebook comments dissenting from the District's position on student protests planned in the wake of the Parkland shooting.
After a review committee voted to keep Tanya Lee Stone's novel in Cody Public School libraries, the school board elected to remove it.
The First Amendment doesn't end "at the schoolhouse gates." But students should know their schools' policies when it comes to organizing protests. This is NCAC's quick guide for student protesters.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has joined with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to express concern about the state of freedom of expression at Polk State College.
Sunset Park High School in Brooklyn, NY removed a work of student art last week after complaints that its message was offensive. NCAC opposes allowing a "hecker's veto" to chill this student's right to free expression.
While it is understandable that a novel that repeatedly uses a highly offensive racial slur would generate discomfort among some parents and students, the problems of living in a society where racial tensions persist will not be resolved by banishing literary classics from the classroom.
Following a widespread tide of denouncements of anti-BDS legislation, objections to the state laws have now moved into the purview of federal courts. The ACLU recently filed separate First Amendment challenges against bills in Kansas and Arizona, alleging that they prohibit political expression and association and engage in speaker-based discrimination.
The university was sued by a group of students for failing to protect them from peer-on-peer harassment by not banning a social media app. NCAC writes in support of the university's commitment to free speech.
Deyshia Hargrave, who was removed from a school board meeting and unlawfully arrested in early January, has yet to receive an apology from local or state education officials.
After an artist was censored in Norfolk, VA, the public agency who shut down her show cancels all future art exhibitions.
If a recent policy change is not reversed, art by Guantanamo detainees may be permanently removed from public view when John Jay College's exhibition closes next week.
A library in Temple, Texas was criticized for highlighting LGBT-themed books during June 2017's celebration of Pride Month and equal space was demanded for anti-LGBT material.
NCAC has joined a bipartisan coalition of 44 organizations to urge members of the House of Representatives to vote "yes" on the USA RIGHTS amendment and "no" on the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act (S. 139) if the USA RIGHTS amendment does not pass.
Deyshia Hargrave was inappropriately removed from a school board meeting in Louisiana. The First Amendment guarantees all Americans a right to speak, inquire and petition the government.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and 16 other nonprofits have filed an amicus brief in support of Representative William Lacy Clay of Missouri and his constituent, student artist David Pulphus.
NCAC condemned an effort by President Trump’s legal team to intimidate the author and publisher of a forthcoming book critical of the president.
During a year of marked ideological divisions, the right to free expression has been challenged by everyone from the alt-right to the far left. Our core values have been attacked by activists across the political spectrum. In this tumultuous year, we commend the allies who refuse to be silenced and continue to defend the right to free speech and its value to our society.
An Open Letter to the Baltimore City Public School District: The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and its partners in the Kids’ Right to Read Project urge administrators to return BUCK: A Memoir by Professor M.K. Asante to the high school curriculum so that students can see their lives reflected in the books they read. Its removal was arbitrary and damaging to students.
NCAC condemns the recent move by the Trump administration to censor the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by forbidding the use of certain words in official communications.
Following the publication of a controversial editorial, an independent student newspaper at TSU has been threatened with revocation of funding and an imposed review of its editorial process.
On Thursday, NCAC joined with more than 30 press freedom, civil liberties and open government groups, led by Free Press, in submitting a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai. The letter urges Pai to cancel a vote scheduled for December 14, 2017 that will likely reverse net neutrality protections instated in 2015. Read the full letter below; [...]
