Today, the Supreme Court declared that it won’t revive COPA, the Child Online Protection Act. Passed in 1998, the bill would “would have barred Web sites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet.” The March 2007 federal appeals court decision ruled that COPA violated the First Amendment. In July 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third [...]
It's a hot time for book challenges, bans and questions. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: pulled from the high school library, back in the library today. Satanic Verses: Salman Rushdie reflects on attempted censorship by his 20-year fatwa The Bookseller of Kabul: "temporarily banned in Wyandotte Public Schools" while Superintendent reviews the book. Night Talk: one parent [...]
The Free Expression Network* has collected commentary and analysis from FEN members on the shifting political landscape and the opportunities and challenges free expression now faces. A diverse group of organizations dealing with free expression weigh in: including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Student Press Law Center, and American Association of University Professors. […]
There’s been much buzz in the conservative blogosphere, talk radio and newspapers about a predicted return of the Fairness Doctrine. A group of Republican Senators have pulled together a bill that “would prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, which would suppress free speech by requiring the government to monitor political views and decide what constitutes [...]
Louisiana: On January 13, 2009, Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education passed a policy that gives teachers more leeway to use materials outside of the science textbooks. Supporters say this would foster critical thinking in students, critics says that this is merely a guise for permitting creationism in classrooms. Crack the code: how “critical thinking” is used to support [...]
An art installation, sponsored by the new Czeck EU Presidency, and displayed in the European Council building in Brussels has become a litmus test for EU sensitivities. The conceptual artist David ?erný was commisssioned to invite 27 artists from EU member states to represent their country as they see it. The idea was to gather specifically personal, non-government approved and possibly [...]
Now Twittering: AJGaza The New York Times recently printed an article by Noel Cohen about the limited access Americans have to Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israel’s invasion of Gaza. This, as Cohen notes, is in part because the station is carried only by cable providers in Burlington, Vt.; Toledo, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. Why is it so important that Americans [...]
We are glad to hear that “The Book of Bunny Suicides,” by the British author Andy Riley is back on the shelves of Central Linn High School Library, in Halsey, Oregon. The book was challenged this fall by the parent of a student who had refused to return the book stating that its content is unsuitable for children. [...]
Over the past eight years, government censorship of science has ranged from silencing researchers to creating policies that interfered with the free exchange of scientific ideas. Government censorship of science includes distortion and suppression of data, and threatens the public’s access to truthful and accurate information. Though many examples of censorship and suppression have been revealed, it is likely in [...]
David Marchese at Spin has a thoughtful piece about the distribution of hate music, and how the marketplace of ideas is better at tamping down hate speech than censorship.
The latest scandal around Facebook's ban on images of nursing mothers, which show a glimpse of the areola or nipple, only presents us with the latest case of nipplephobia - an extreme panic reaction at the view of the female nipple (to my knowledge the male nipple fails to exert such power). Facebook's action was a misguided enforcement of its [...]
On January 8th, we reported that a San Franciscan chiropractor was suing a former patient, Christopher Norberg, over a negative review on Yelp. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, this case has since been settled (the details of the settlement remain confidential), and the offending post has been taken down to be replaced with: “A misunderstanding between both parties led [...]
Yesterday, we covered the recent decision of student journalists at Faribault High School to move their newspaper, the Echo, online after it was shut down by the district superintendent. The superintendent shut down the newspaper after students refused to comply with the superintendent’s request to review an article prior to publication. Instead, students decided to form their own online newspaper, [...]
Not everyone agrees with Round Rock ISD Superintendent Jesus Chavez's decision to ban TTYL by Lauren Myracle from district middle school libraries. A parent who opposes the superintendent's decision to pull the book wrote an excellent response in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Read the Kids' Right to Read Project's letter to the Board of Trustees here.
The Star Tribune reports that students of Faribault High School, Minnesota, have moved their newspaper online after it was shut down by the school's superintendent. The superintendent shut down the paper after student editors refused to show him an article about an investigation into a middle school teacher before going to press. Now students will publish their newspaper Echo exclusively [...]
The Washington Post reports the death of Richard Seaver, the censorship-fighting editor and translator who worked with Barney Rosset at Grove Press to publish such controversial books as Tropic of Cancer, Naked Lunch and The Story of O and who helped bring Samuel Beckett to a wider English-speaking audience.
Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center sheds some light on the topic of internet censorship in a recent article in the North Country Gazette. He argues that, while the first amendment does not apply to private companies, privately owned internet companies have an unprecedented amount of control over the speech of large groups of people. For hundreds of millions [...]
A student's sculpture project at South Kingstown High School was mutilated by her art teacher even before it was completed. The reason was that the anatomically correct figure sported a penis. Apparently penises could be viewed by students when they are studying art, but not reproduced in their own art work. While requiring student sculpture to be true to the [...]
UPDATE: Earlier today, Yelp users were protesting the lawsuit by posting a rash of negative comments about Biegel on Yelp. Since then, these negative comments have been removed, presumably by Yelp, which, according to its terms of service, "reserves the right (but has no obligation) to remove or suppress User Content from the Site at its sole discretion for any [...]
On January 6, 2009, a new California law that strengthens First Amendment protections for high school and college newspapers went into effect. The law in California previously protected students from punishment for articles in newspapers, but didn't protect the school paper advisors. According to a statement in the LA Times from a lobbyist for the bill, "[i]n the last three [...]
Recently, there have been reports that content involving the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is mysteriously disappearing from Facebook. The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) has complained that “many threads in various pro-Israel and pro-JIDF groups have mysteriously disappeared,” while others have complained that anti-Zionist content has disappeared, and one girl alleged that Facebook has prevented her from using hashtags such as [...]
"Although a recession may propel some people to seek more procedures, many consumers will reduce or forego cosmetic treatments, [academics] said." Well, if you define free expression like this:
I'm not exactly sure what rubric this site uses (it seems to only pull from the first page of the blog), but the good news is: What got us here: porn (6x), dangerous (3x), sex (2x). Thanks, Ethan, Andy, and Kevin!
Happy New Year, everyone.
Kevin Martin, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is still working to push a plan to create a free wireless broadband network. Public Knowledge, which supports the plan, writes: We appreciate the potential of a new service that could provide a genuine alternative to the current wireline cable modem/DSL duopoly, to apply pressure on cable and telecom providers to [...]
Ethan Zuckerman, who founded Global Voices Online, has an excellent talk in which he explains how web 2.0 services (that allow people to socially network, share LOL cats, and organize politically) play a critical role in getting around government censorship. You can read it here, with images he used at the talk. One gem, which [...]
Because if we can be G-rated, then why can't the rest of you? Words that might get us in trouble, though: dangerous (2x) sex (1x) For a good roundup of the UK ratings story, click here.
The UK culture secretary Andy Burnham has recently spoken out about making the internet safer by adopting a rating system similar to the movie ratings. His take on the web: “quite a dangerous place.” According to the Telegraph: His plans to rein in the internet, and censor some websites, are likely to trigger a major row with online advocates who [...]
At Faribault High School in Faribault, MN, students have refused to allow their superintendent to review a particular article before going to print. The Student Press Law Center reported that the students, citing their 1st Amendment rights, told the Superintendent: “What you believe [is] inappropriate concerning the Prieve story is not a legal standard for prior review or from stopping [...]
Two antievolution bills in Michigan died in committee on December 19th. The Michigan bills were modeled after the Louisiana Science Education Act which passed in June 2008. According to the National Center for Science Education: If enacted, the [Michigan] bills would have required state and local administrators “to create an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that encourages pupils [...]
Mothers International Lactation Campaign (MILC) protested in front of Facebook headquarters after photos of mothers breastfeeding their children were removed from Facebook. Facebook said the images violated the terms of agreement (see also: Lori Drew). Heather Farley, a protest organizer, responded that Utah state law, for example, doesn't consider breastfeeding obscene and that Facebook should change its policy to allow [...]
The new ordinance lets police ticket and fine ($100!) those who "repeatedly commit acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person and that serve no legitimate purpose." Seriously. Snark award goes to hotair.com: Michigan finds itself in such financial distress that its Congressional contingent has successfully harangued the White House into multi-billion-dollar loans to private enterprise. I find that extremely [...]
There’s a push nationwide to monitor and punish students’ online behavior. According to the Des Moines Register, West Burlington is believed to be the first Iowa school district to consider including cyberspace as part of its student conduct policy, which says bad behavior can sideline children from sports, dances and other school activities. The plan not only raises the hackles [...]
FIRE analyzes two big online speech cases in colleges. Looking at the MSU student found guilty of spamming for sending out emails to professors, and the blocking of JuicyCampus at TSU, the article looks at the legal and social implications of these decisions and how they could shape expression on campus. Gene Policinski looks at the state of the First [...]
With what promises to be the most crowded inauguration in US history, SPLC has issued an advisory to student journalists planning on covering the event: The Student Press Law Center is advising college journalists who plan to cover events surrounding the Presidential Inauguration to be held January 20 in Washington, D.C., to take several precautionary steps to avoid being arrested [...]
We were delighted to hear that the Ankeny, Iowa, School Board voted 6-1 this week to keep And Tango Makes Three in the district’s elementary school libraries without restrictions. The book had been challenged by two parents who objected to the story of two male penguins who parent a baby penguin named Tango together. The Kids’ Right to Read Project [...]
Last night, the Coeur d’Alene School Board voted unanimously to return 26 titles (among them Brave New World, Tom Sawyer, and Alice in Wonderland) to district middle and high school classrooms. A committee of educators had reviewed them and recommended that they be approved by the board for classroom use. The board voted in November in a 2-2 split vote [...]
Listening to: La Vie Boheme On December 12, the Dallas Morning News reported that Rowlett High School had canceled a production of the musical Rent after protest from some parents in the community. According to the article, the school’s theatre director made the decision in the interest of the students involved: “In light of everything that has happened, I need [...]
An incident at North Carolina State University in early November involving hateful words directed at President-elect Obama has sparked debate on campus about the extent to which Hate Speech is Free Speech. The debate has apparently spread to the UNC campus as well. ABC News, Chapel Hill reports: After the controversy over racist comments spray-painted in the Free Expression Tunnel [...]
We left for the weekend with a piece on a student's editorial that was pulled from the school paper. From the student's perspective, and from the principal's response, it seemed the article was pulled because it defended evolution and failed to mention creationism. Unfortunately, as reported today in the Roanoke Times, the article was plagiarized. According to the editorial, the [...]