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.”
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 Aurora Public Library has removed a poem entitled "Hijab mean Jihad" from a display after community members complained.
Nadine Strossen's new book, HATE, is a clear and forceful polemic that deserves a wide audience. The book brilliantly revitalizes a classical liberal argument about the importance of countering hate speech with more speech, not enforced silence.
Often, the most frequently challenged books tell the stories that most need to be heard. The 10 most challenged books of 2017, according to the American Library Association, were no different.
Student protesters reached a settlement with the Howard University Board of Trustees... The sit-ins broke the record for the longest Howard University student protest and harked back to historic campus takeovers by black student activists in the 1960s.
(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 [...]
Maggie Budzyna's debut film, CENSORED, tackles the slippery slope of banning words from public dialogue. We spoke with the 17-year-old filmmaker about censorship, youth activism and the importance of using her artistic freedom to resist injustice. Watch her film and read the interview.
Remembering Robert S. Rubin and his defense of The Brooklyn Museum in a highly publicized controversy in which he went head-to-head with then-mayor Rudy Giuliani who threatened the museum's funding if a piece was not removed from a 1999 exhibition.
When her school district banned her favorite book, The Hate U Give, from libraries, 15-year old Ny'Shira Lundy was inspired to take action.
Since 2005 the National Association of News Editors has branded the third week of March “Sunshine Week.” But in 2018, Sunshine Week is looking less bright. Sunshine Week has been obscured by an eclipse. Zach Garrett cautions against allowing partisan politics to obscure the real issues.
Following a censorship incident last month, artists at Artspace Jackson Flats issued an open call for submissions for a new show, CENSORED; Artists Respond, that addresses contemporary, often negative reactions to the female body, particularly the nude in art.
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.
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.
For the latest edition of our Arts Advocacy Podcast, we talked to the bi-coastal artist and photographer Savannah Spirit. Her sun-drenched nude self portraits are repeatedly flagged and removed as ‘obscene’ or ‘inappropriate’ by Instagram and Facebook. This interview discusses her frustration with social media and its necessity to artists working today.
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.
Artspace, the self-described "non-profit real estate developer for the arts," creates affordable live-work spaces in a world where such spaces are rapidly disappearing. However, on more than one occasion, Artspace has censored works exhibited by residents on their premises. The most recent incident occurred in East Minneapolis.
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.
In a landmark case heard in Federal district court in Brooklyn, a judge has ruled that a New York real estate developer must pay millions in damages to a group of 21 graffiti artists to compensate for destroying their work under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA).
Any art institution that displays art about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict - or even art that is created by Israeli or Palestinian artists - needs to carefully navigate a space between intense pressures coming from right-wing pro-Israel groups and calls for boycott from supporters of the cultural BDS movement.
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.
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 year into one the most divisive presidencies Americans have seen in their lifetimes, free speech is in crisis. NCAC's Director of Programs looks at the most representative issues affecting artistic freedom in the first year of the Trump administration.
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.
With a Texas school board set to meet on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to determine the fate of an acclaimed young adult novel in district libraries, a local teenager has emerged as a vital voice for freedom of inquiry and expression.
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.
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.
A first-time protester describes her experience of claiming her First Amendment rights to stand up for net neutrality.
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; [...]
A sneaker and apparel company has bricked over an iconic Harlem mural as they re-brand the exterior of their new store. Community members are concerned about the erasure of this tribute to the Harlem Renaissance and the the artists living and working in Harlem today and are questioning its legality.
The Masterpiece Cake case that is currently before the Supreme Court is not about speech--it is about conduct. The First Amendment protects the baker’s right to condemn gay marriage, but it does not exempt him from obeying otherwise valid and neutral business regulations that require that he treat his customers equally.
Johns Sims was finally able to present his work, "Confederate Flag: A Public Hanging", after years of forced adaptation and abridgment.
Net neutrality activists, including NCAC, are urging supporters to make their voices heard in demanding that the Internet remain free and open as the FCC prepares to roll back regulations.
