Emma Kromm: North Carolina first state to pass campus protest bill
Greensboro News & Record, Local-NC, 8/20/17
Greensboro News & Record, Local-NC, 8/20/17
By choosing to remove the book, a precedent is set for the success of future book challenges that place objectionable content over pedagogical merit.
Ventura County Star, Local-CA, 8/12/2017
Newsday. Local-NY, 8/6/2017
The bill risks eviscerating online free speech protections for websites that host large amounts of user-generated content.
Howard J. Kopel’s interpretation of the Nassau anti-BDS legislation seeks to punish an individual purely for expressing First Amendment-protected views.
The groups emphasize that the mere presence of explicit language and violence in a book provides no justification for its removal.
Deadline, National. 7/6/2017
Were institutions like Lincoln Center to yield to calls for cancellation coming from the BDS movement or elsewhere, any ensuing conversation would be much impoverished and further polarized.
NCAC and AAUP argue that the bill will create more problems than it solves, burdening universities with provisions that existing free speech protections already account for.
The organizations express grave concern that the Executive Order will have a broad and far-reaching impact on artists’ freedom of movement and, as a result, will seriously inhibit creative freedom, collaboration, and the free flow of ideas.
The Walker Art Center has responded to our criticism arguing "NCAC has placed undue emphasis on the work’s material structure over its concept." Read our new response.
Ventura County Star, Local-CA, 6/22/2017
The award will be presented at the 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference during its Opening General Session on Friday, June 24, in Chicago.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has hired Christopher M. Finan as its next executive director. Joan Bertin, the current executive director, is stepping down after leading the organization for 20 years.
"The fact is that, for hundreds of years, this particular play has been understood to be a critique of political violence, not an endorsement of it."
NCAC has issued a statement signed by several national and international organizations, opposing the Walker's decision to dismantle and destroy the controversial sculpture.
Durham Herald Sun, Local-NC, 6/7/2017
The Week, National, 5/30/2017
This article originally appeared in Censorship News Issue 126 Using spurious First Amendment arguments, state legislators around the country are attacking science education, particularly the teaching of evolution and climate change. Supporters of SB 55 in South Dakota claimed the bill was necessary to protect the academic freedom and free speech rights of teachers. NCAC explained that while teachers have [...]
This article originally apeared in Censorship News Issue 126 It was the “winter of our discontent,” to judge by the number and intensity of protests around the country. Most of these protests, like the Women’s March and the March for Life, displayed the strengths of our constitutional system. But not all. Some protesters and public officials apparently don’t know or [...]
This article originally appeared in Censorship News 126 Islamophobia and censorship In Tennessee, the leader of a Facebook group, Sullivan County Parents Against Islam Indoctrination, filed an official complaint seeking the removal of a Pearson textbook, My World History. She claims it promotes Islamic indoctrination and violates her daughter’s religious beliefs. NCAC explained the difference between religious education and indoctrination [...]
From Censorship News 126: NCAC's Arts Advocacy Program reflects on controversy and calls to censor artwork that represent issues of race.
This article originally appeared in Censorship News Issue 126 “Disparaging” trademarks The controversy behind Lee v. Tam began in 2011 when musician Simon Tam, an Asian-American, attempted to trademark his band’s name, The Slants. The Patent and Trademark Office rejected the trademark based on a provision of the 1946 Lanham Act that prohibits trademarks that “may disparage” people, institutions, beliefs, [...]
This story originally appeared in Censorship News 126 As a candidate for president, Donald Trump made headlines for his scathing attacks on the press. They were not limited to labeling the media as dishonest, referring to unfavorable coverage as “fake news,” and threatening to change libel laws to make it easier to sue news organizations. Mr. Trump’s media hostility went [...]
WFTV (abc), Local-FL, 5/24/2017
The groups underline that the First Amendment protects a student’s right to receive and possess literature, as long as the books in question do not cause disruption to the educational process.
Laurinburg Exchange, Local-NC, 5/17/2017
A public school, the letter argues, has a responsibility to prepare young adults “to exercise the responsibilities of citizenship by promoting democratic values such as free expression, tolerance, and diversity—including diversity of opinion.”
Scientific American, 5/15/2017
The Daily Orange, 5/12/2017
Sun This Week, 5/11/2017
NCAC argues that keeping children from viewing artistic representations of nudes does not ‘protect’ them; rather, it imposes the religion-based view that the nude human body is shameful.
Broadway World, 5/10/2017
The groups’ letter underlines that the hasty removal of the book, after a single complaint, sets a harmful precedent that could leave an entire curriculum in tatters.
Burnsville Patch, 5/8/2017
Frontline, 5/8/2017
Sacramento Bee, 5/7/2017