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).
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give has been removed from school libraries in Katy Independent School District in suburban Houston, Texas. After reviewing the district’s own book review policy, NCAC is formally urging the district’s superintendent to reinstate the book while it is under review.
More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition demanding the removal of a Balthus painting in response to “the current climate around sexual assault and allegations that become more public each day.” The Met has refused to remove the work.
Cody District Public Schools will convene a committee in early December to determine whether Tanya Stone’s acclaimed novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl, will remain in the Cody High School library after a single parent complaint led to an appeal for its removal.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) vehemently objects to the violation of the public’s right to access art by Guantanamo detainees and thus fully participate in the political conversation around Guantanamo. The new directive also violates the human rights of the detainees under international norms and further destruction of the work would impermissibly suppress documents of historical importance.
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.
The cancellation of a scheduled appearance by a Muslim guest speaker at a Connecticut public school is the latest disturbing example of suppressions of free speech in museums, on college campuses and now at middle schools in response to threats of violence.
A CA school board is set to vote on a widely criticized policy that would stoke parental fears and anxieties, invite self-censorship and wreak havoc with the curriculum.
Brandeis University has had to cancel a scheduled production of a play by Michael Weller after the playwright and the Theater Department failed to come to terms as to how the play would be presented.
Paul Rucker's traveling exhibition REWIND, an urgently relevant multi-media installation that addresses the history of racial injustice in America, was closed to the public by York College of Pennsylvania, less than one week into its run. Paul sat down with NCAC to discuss the incident.
Although some may understandably dislike the book’s use of racial slurs, it is essential to any realistic and pedagogically sound understanding of our nation’s history.
Government surveillance throws a shadow over all communication, including social media, by making people afraid that the government is looking over their shoulder and inhibiting the free flow of ideas. NCAC has recently signed letters in support of the USA RIGHTS Act, a bipartisan bill in the Senate, and opposing the DHS protocol for collecting and storing social media.
NCAC has urged an Oklahoma board of education to rescind its policy of disciplining students who do not stand during the national anthem as students have the right to peaceful and non-disruptive political speech, which includes the right to protest.
NCAC will honor pioneering author and editor David Levithan and Joan E. Bertin, long-time executive director of NCAC, at NCAC’s Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defenders in New York City on November 6.
The groups argue the decision to immediately cease teaching the book in response to a single complaint imposes a “heckler’s veto” on the curriculum and deprives all students of their First Amendment right to read a pedagogically valuable, National Book Award-winning novel. UPDATE: Book restored to curriculum!
