Last month here on The Torch, I wrote about a misguided and dangerous bill presented in the New York State Legislature. The bill would have effectively denied funding to state universities that support academic groups that boycott Israel, as the Americ...
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas today filed a motion to dismiss 11 charges against Barrett Brown in a criminal prosecution that would have had massive implications for journalism and the right of ordinary people to share links. EF...
Open debate, the right to dissent, and freedom of association are core First Amendment values that are directly threatened by legislative efforts to penalize organizations like ASA for their political positions.
The results are in! The winner of this year’s Youth Free Expression Project Film Contest, addressing the theme Video Games in the Crosshairs, is “Future Warfare III” by Ani Akpan of the Bronx, NY.
The the oft-delayed and highly anticipated role-playing video game South Park: The Stick of Truth is finally hitting the shelves next week. However, a leaked reviewer’s guide for European journalists has revealed that the version of the game that pub...
This piece by NCAC Executive Director Joan Bertin appeared in the February 24, 2014 CQ Researcher as part of a "point-counterpoint" section on media violence. Violence has always been a fact of life and remains a reality for many people. It also has occupied a central place in art and literature, including children’s stories (“Hansel and Gretel”), classic texts (“The [...]
Alarmist watchdog group the Parents Television Council has turned its focus toward Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim after an announcement that as of March 31, the programming block would begin an hour earlier. The PTC is a “non-partisan education organ...
People, super serious question: what ever would we do without Judy Blume? Judy's books helped many of us navigate the troubled seas of adulthood (you former young ladies of the world know what I'm talking about). They entertained us, emboldened us, held our hands and assured us we were not alone. And her brave and tireless advocacy on behalf of [...]
Similar legislation has been introduced in 12 states. From Truthout.org: On Tuesday, January 28th, a transpartisan group of four Vermont state representatives introduced legislation that would block some of the practical effects of mass data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA). Rep. Teo Zagar (D-Windsor-4-1), along with co-sponsor Reps. Susan Davis (P/D-Orange-1), Patricia Komline (R-Bennington-Rutland) and William Stevens (I-Addison-Rutland) [...]
From Center for Constitutional Rights: Synopsis Blum v. Holder is a federal lawsuit challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. The plaintiffs are five longtime animal rights activists whose advocacy work has been chilled due to fear of being prosecuted as a terrorist under the AETA. ... Pushed through Congress by a powerful lobby [...]
Iconic American musician Pete Seeger was censored by CBS over an anti-war song he wanted to perform on the Smother Brothers TV show.
NCAC participating organizations the Dramatists Guild and the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund have sent a letter (PDF embed below) to Theater J in Washington DC in support of the venue's staging of Motti Lerner's The Admission. A group called Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art has waged a smear campaign to vilify the play as anti-Israel. The reason we dramatists feel so strongly about this [...]
Responses to recent disclosures about official surveillance of private communications and activities are rolling in. The most recent is from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which today released a Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The PCLOB is an independent [...]
ProPublica has published an analysis of the four most often cited rationales offered to justify mass surveillance and collection of metadata, describing why they are “questionable claims.” It is instructive reading for anyone who is concerned about claims that security cannot be achieved without sacrificing constitutional principles. Whatever the right answer to that dilemma, official dissembling does little to advance [...]
Last night, Al Jazeera America's The Stream dedicated its show to a topic near and dear to NCAC's work and hearts: book challenges and bans in the U.S. Joining the show was author Carolyn Mackler, whose works NCAC has defended throughout the years, as well as partners-in-activism Isaiah Zukowski and Lynn Bruno. Isaiah spoke out as a high school senior when [...]
In a 2-1 ruling today, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals effectively ended net neutrality, striking down the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order. The FCC's order was intended to keep broadband providers from interfering with traffic on the Web. The issue of who should regulate internet access has been the subject of much debate in the last decade. NCAC believes net neutrality allows [...]
This is a good, concise history of abuses by the intelligence community and offers a great argument against warrantless surveillance. Without that break-in by the Media 8, J. Edgar Hoover’s “shadow FBI,” a criminal conspiracy at the heart of a developing national security state, might never have been revealed. (The CIA, officially banned from domestic spying on Americans, turned out [...]
After cries of censorship, an eviction and a lawsuit, The Central Utah Art Center (CUAC) will receive a $60,000 in a settlement with the city of Ephraim, it was announced Friday. The lawsuit was filed in early 2013 after the CUAC was evicted from the space they had inhabited for 20 years. The city alleged the CUAC hadn't fulfilled its [...]
Paul Carter/The Register-Guard As a dues-paying member of the Emerald Art Center in Springfield, OR, Linda Cunningham prepared a piece of work for the monthly members' show. The "pastoral" works of other members were accepted without incident, but Cunningham's three-dimensional piece was deemed "too controversial" and rejected by the executive board of the Art Center, according to The [...]
Fifty-four civil liberties and public interest groups sent a letter to Congressional leadership today opposing S. 1631, the FISA Improvements Act. The bill, promoted by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), seeks to legalize and extend NSA mass surveillance programs, including the classified phone records surveillance program confirmed by documents released by Edward Snowden this summer. From EFF’s blog post on the [...]
On Monday, NCAC joined with other organizations on an friend of the court brief (.pdf) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Barnes v. Zaccari, an important case involving the speech rights of college students. The case began in 2007, when Hayden Barnes was expelled from Valdosta State University in Georgia over his vocal criticism of [...]
Updates are coming in on the threat to academic freedom at the University of Colorado Boulder. According to the Daily Camera (via the Chronicle of Higher Ed's Ticker blog), CU professor Patricia Adler might still have a chance to teach her "Deviance in U.S. Society" course as early as the Spring 2014 semester–if the class clears a review of Sociology faculty, [...]
Why is it that every time sex enters the conversation in academia, harassment always appears to shadow it? How perverse - and unfair to real victims of harassment - that this serious charge is used against a professor for nothing else than creatively doing her job. In a lecture on prostitution, a highlight of her regular course on deviance, University [...]
Yesterday, a federal judge issued an order holding that the National Security Agency's tracking and collecting cellphone "metadata" without a warrant is "almost certainly" unconstitutional under the 4th Amendment. The court issued a preliminary injunction against the NSA's tracking cellphone information of the named plaintiffs. This is the first serious legal fallout from the disclosures by Edward Snowden last summer [...]
Court settlement extends San Bernardino County Government Center exhibit, to compensate for time during which paintings had been removed. Today NCAC and and the ACLU of Southern California were please to see the final court settlement that extends the exhibition time of three recently restored paintings at the San Bernardino County Government Center. The extended display period will compensate for [...]
Here they are: KRRP's Top Victories of 2013. We are proud of our work in successfully battling these book challenges, but this effort can only continue with your continued support of the project. If you love these books, support us in this fight for the freedom to read today. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99fq_L3wdHk&w=560&h=315] The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky / Glen Ellyn, [...]
Outside, a panorama view of the New Jersey skyline, reflected light twinkling on the east river; inside, talk of books, art, community, and censorship. This past Tuesday, NCAC celebrated its 39th year at our annual “Celebration of Free Speech and … Continue reading →
Author and activist Ben White will speak at Brooklyn College today at an event entitled “Israel: Aparteid not Democracy,” organized by Students for Justice in Palestine. Nearly two dozen other campus and other groups are supporting the lecture, including — notably — the English, Political Science … Continue reading →
Neil Gaiman’s bestselling novel Neverwhere has been returned to classrooms in Alamogordo, New Mexico, after the approval of a review committee and worldwide protest that included a letter signed by CBLDF! District spokesperson Doyle Styling talked to Karyn M. Peterson with the School Library Journal: “[Neverwhere] did go through a review process and it was found to be educationally suitable, balanced, and age-appropriate for high school students.” The book has been on district required reading lists since 2004, but it had not been challenged until parent Nancy Wilmott recently complained over content she deemed inappropriate for her 15-year-old daughter. Wilmott took exception to language and what she called “sexual innuendo” in the book, claiming that “This is rated R material, and she cannot get into a rated R movie.” The book was removed from classrooms during the review period, but it remained available in the library, a move that was openly supported by AHS principal Darian Jaramillo. Wilmott cited one passage in her complaint, which appears on p. 86 of the paperback edition of the book and reads as follows: A late-night couple, who had been slowly walking along the Embankment toward them, holding hands, sat down in the middle of [...]
Last week, NCAC staff members spoke about on-going censorship issues in front of audiences in New York and beyond. NCAC Programs Director Svetlana Mintcheva participated in a panel on photography and censorship at the Photoplus Expo, held in New York … Continue reading →
Right now the NSA is spying on everyone’s personal communications, and it’s operating without any meaningful oversight. Since the Snowden leaks started, more than 569,000 people from all walks of life have signed the StopWatching.us petition telling the U.S. Congress … Continue reading →
If you’re like us, the recent removal of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere from Alamogordo Public School classrooms has caused you to feel anything from confusion to just-plain-no-way-you-can’t-be-serious anger. Now you can take action: A parent in Alamogordo has started a petition on Change.org … Continue reading →
In the middle of a unit on Harper Lee’s classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird, students at Belle Chasse High School in Lousiana were informed they wouldn’t be finishing the book. Apparently, their teachers told them, the book is banned. … Continue reading →
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom has sent a letter to the superintendent of the Alamogordo, N. M., Public Schools, asking that the district rescind its removal of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere from Alamogordo High School classrooms and the library. The ban, which was reported last week, came after a parent complained about content on one page […]
How freedom of speech is under assault on many American college and university campuses.
It's not just athletes and celebrities that damage their careers with indiscreet tweets.
Jennifer Lu is a sophomore at NYU studying Media, Culture, and Communication, and she is a programs intern at NCAC. She hopes to learn more about the relationship between censorship, media, and freedom of expression, and ultimately to pursue her … Continue reading →
It’s not just Catcher in the Rye anymore. The Randolph County school board in North Carolina voted yesterday to restore access to Invisible Man. Public statements of support from readers, students and citizen moved them to have a change of … Continue reading →
Today, in a 6-1 vote, the Randolph County, NC Board of Education voted to rescind its recently enacted ban on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. The original vote to remove it was 5-2. University of Illinois professor Emily Knox attended the hearing and live tweeted the proceeding. Here’s more on the story from Kathi Keys, the local […]
Celebrated YA author Lauren Myracle joined Acacia O’Connor of the Kids’ Right to Read Project and ABFFE’s Chris Finan on a panel at the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance conference in New Orleans on September 20, 2013. In addition to talking … Continue reading →
