Cancelled commencement speakers, a rush of attempts to put trigger warnings on class content, student petitions to remove potentially disturbing artwork from campus… What is going on? Academia is no stranger to free speech battles. In the 1950s professors could be ousted for “treasonous or seditious acts or utterances” or for being members of an organization advocating the violent overthrow [...]
Political Micromanaging of College Curriculum and Punishing Colleges for Teaching Books with LGBT Content is an Assault on Academic Freedom June 9, 2014 Media Contacts: Michael O'Neil, Communications Director, National Coalition Against Censorship; [email protected], (212) 807 6222 x 107 Victoria Middleton, Executive Director, ACLU of South Carolina; [email protected], (843) 720 1424; The National Coalition Against Censorship, ACLU of South Carolina [...]
No one knows exactly why Andy Warhol's only public work, "13 Most Wanted Men," was censored fifty years ago this month at the 1964 World's Fair in Queens, New York. Initial press reports said it was Warhol himself who didn't like the work. But that was not the case. Yet, no other rationale was offered. The reason remained unspoken - or perhaps, it was simply [...]
Free Expression Network member EFF have posted "The Top 5 Claims That Defenders of the NSA Have to Stop Making to Remain Credible" and it's a scathing takedown of anyone relying on these old chestnuts to prop up an argument for continued mass surveillance.
TruthDig Radio, which broadcasts on radio stations across the country and is available as a podcast, had a great discussion with Svetlana about our "Top 40 Threats to Free Speech Right Now!" post. It's a wide-ranging dialog, from the government's war on whistleblowers to Facebook's war on nipples. The interview starts at about 17 minutes in.
This year NCAC celebrates 40 years on the frontlines of the censorship wars. As we revisit our 40 year history —and the recent history of censorship in the US —we will be looking at how information access, creative freedom and control over what we see and know have changed - or not. The approach of Memorial Day reminds us how [...]
To celebrate NCAC's 40th Anniversary, we take a look at 40 threats to free speech.
by CarolineS on Flickr We've launched a new website with an updated design on a completely new platform. It has already made a big difference in how we promote free speech! Here are 10 reasons why we think you'll like it, too: 1. Welcome Home, Blogging Censorship! Our free expression commentary and news blog, Blogging Censorship, is now [...]
NCAC cordially invites you to a special screening of a new documentary about the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Monday, May 19th at the IFC Center.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill to limit NSA’s mass surveillance. The USA Freedom Act has the support of some groups pressing for reform which characterize it as an important first step in curbing the government’s bulk collection of private records, while noting that more still needs to be done. See http://newamerica.net/node/109858. Other organizations express concerns that [...]
Damien Hirst's The Virgin Mother is a large piece about even larger subjects: life, death, birth, and humanity. But is it too large for Old Westbury, L.I.? The Virgin Mother was previously displayed (there are several casts) at Lever House in Manhattan, outside London's Royal Academy, and on Fontvieille Harbour, Monaco. But now that it landed in posh Old Westbury, [...]
As free speech organizations continue to push the government for changes in surveillance policies, there are technical changes we can implement to thwart online mass surveillance that require no government permission at all. Reset The Net is calling on everyone who hosts a website or publishes an app to take action.
NCAC has received Charity Navigator’s highest rating for a non-profit organization! Charity Navigator is recognized as the country’s premier evaluator of charities, taking into account an organization’s financial health, accountability and transparency, and results reporting to provide donors with data that helps them make informed and confident decisions with their contributions. The high rating indicates that "NCAC outperforms most other charities [...]
Cedarville University officials in Ohio confiscated and halted distribution of the independent student newspaper The Ventriloquist after it featured two essays critical of the school’s attitude toward gay students. “The Final Decision” tells the story of Avery Redic, who was removed from student government and other school leadership positions after coming out, and “Fear at Cedarville” seeks to open a [...]
World Book Night is an annual celebration of reading for pleasure, and the fun of passing on a book to someone in your community. Each year, 30-35 books are chosen by an independent panel of librarians and booksellers for distribution on the evening of April 23rd. The authors waive their royalties and the publishers cover the cost of producing a [...]
What a difference 60 years can make. On this day, in 1954, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency was closing out a second day of hearings. These two days would prove a pivotal period in comics history, lead...
Welcome to Using Graphic Novels in Education, an ongoing feature from CBLDF that is designed to allay confusion around the content of graphic novels and to help parents and teachers raise readers. In this column, we examine graphic novels, including th...
We're excited about the just-released Library Juice Press Handbook of Intellectual Freedom because, in addition to being a landmark resource on the state of free inquiry and expression, it features a new essay by NCAC's Svetlana Mintcheva on censorship, past and present, in the arts. Library Juice talks about the need for this handbook on their blog: The existing reference literature on intellectual [...]
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, a member of the NCAC-led Free Expression Network, today revealed the winners of the 23rd annual Jefferson Muzzles, an award bestowed on individuals and institutions responsible for some of the more egregious or ridiculous affronts to First Amendment principles occurring in the previous year. This year's dubious honorees range from high [...]
Mueller, John & Mark G. Stewart, "Secret without Reason and Costly without Accomplishment: Questioning the National Security Agency's Metadata Program," I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society (2014) Download a PDF. Excerpt When Edward Snowden’s revelations emerged in June 2013 about the extent to which the National Security Agency was secretly gathering communications data as part of the country’s [...]
Blog and post to your tumblr, Twitter and Facebook and then join the live, digital teach-in with NCAC, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MIT's Center For Civic Media at 3pm ET to learn more about what you can do to help stop internet censorship in libraries and schools.
Students at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) are planning a protest tomorrow in response to the suspension of Andraya Williams, a transgender student who was suspended and banned from campus for using a women’s bathroom. But because of CPCC...
In what ways are video games like comic books, or early cartoons? What educational purposes do they serve? What do they teach us about ourselves? Can designing and playing video games make us better people? NCAC invited a panel of gaming designers and educators to open up these questions during our Video Games in the Crosshairs film screening this past [...]
The Huffington Post reported last week that Senator Patty Murray of Washington will reintroduce the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act after learning of harassment suffered by one of her interns while attending college. The intern’s ...
In a disturbing development that directly threatens the freedom to imagine, rap lyrics are being brought in as evidence in criminal trials (New York Times story). An amicus brief (below) filed by the New Jersey chapter of NCAC participating organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, argues That a rap artist wrote lyrics seemingly embracing the world of violence is no [...]
Mark your calendars! On April 4th NCAC will be celebrating 404 Day, a day dedicated to the issue of internet censorship in public schools and libraries. Along with 404 Day partners the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the MIT Center for Civic Media, we are spreading the word and calling on You to share your stories!
Tomorrow is opening night for Trumbull High School students and for a performance of the musical Rent that almost wasn't.
In celebration of Sunshine Week, we're dipping into our files of our many open records requests from censorship incidents around the country.
This week is Sunshine week, a nation-wide celebration of open access in government. Sunshine week was started in 2002 by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors in response to proposed legislation that would have severely undermined the state's open records law. We at NCAC are frequent users of state records requests, particularly to bolster our work on individual censorship cases. [...]
With by now predictable regularity, student activism - and even academic debate - on the conflict in the Middle East is met with punitive sanctions and attempts at silencing. Such attempts exist on both sides, but disproportionately punish students and speakers critical of Israeli politics. The latest episode took place this March on the Campus of Northeastern University, where a [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), ACLU of South Carolina, American Association of University Professors, Modern Language Association and other free speech organizations today sent a letter (below) to members of the South Carolina Senate criticizing the recent defunding of public institutions of higher learning because of objections to assigned reading. "The proposed budget cuts are designed to punish the [...]
In 2012 we honored author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor as a Free Speech Defender for her groundbreaking Alice series and Shiloh. Shelf Awareness reports that Phyllis was one over 20 authors celebrated last week at the inaugural NoVa Teen Book Festival, founded by an Arlington, VA bookstore in partnership with local schools and libraries. Here's a video of Phyllis speaking (at 1:17) with other [...]
Kennesaw State finally formally announced the reinstatement of Ruth Stanford's “A Walk in the Valley” to the opening exhibition at the new Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art. The piece, a commissioned work about Georgia author Corra Harris' homestead, was taken down two weeks ago, shortly before the formal opening on Saturday, March 1st.
Join NCAC for a day at the movies as we screen the winners of our teen film contest, feed you with free popcorn, and celebrate free expression on the big screen. 3/29 @ New York Film Academy.
In advance of the release of the wildly-anticipated video game South Park: The Stick of Truth, CBLDF reported that some versions of the game were being censored in countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and in Australia. Now that the game is...
Two recent legislative proposals in Maryland and New York - drafted in retaliation against academic organzations' support of academic boycotts against Israel - seek to penalize professional associations and their members for engaging in protected political activity.
Welcome to Using Graphic Novels in Education, an ongoing feature from CBLDF that is designed to allay confusion around the content of graphic novels and to help parents and teachers raise readers. In this column, we examine graphic novels, including th...
Rowan University student newspaper The Whit reported late last month on a student petition urging the school to revise its free speech policy in order to address “recent hate speech from non-student organizations on campus.” Assistant Vice Presiden...
Last month, South Carolina’s House Ways and Means Committee voted in favor of budget cuts to the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina Upstate by amounts matching the money each school spent on required reading programs that incl...
Lawmakers in the Kansas Senate are considering a draconian new bill that would make it easier to prosecute educators and other school officials for using “offensive” materials in classrooms and libraries. Senate Bill 401 was proposed in res...
