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Read an excerpt from Svetlana Mintcheva’s essay in the new “Handbook on Intellectual Freedom”

By |2020-01-03T14:43:55-05:00April 14th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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The Muzzles Are Here! TJ Center Announces Best Censors of 2014

By |2024-08-02T12:50:31-04:00April 10th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Secret without Reason and Costly without Accomplishment: Questioning the National Security Agency’s Metadata Program

By |2020-01-03T14:43:54-05:00April 4th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Panel of Video Game Experts Push Beyond the Negative Hype

By |2016-01-14T14:57:00-05:00April 1st, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Rap Lyrics Used as Evidence in Criminal Trials

By |2020-01-03T14:43:46-05:00March 31st, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Help Fight Internet Censorship and Filtering in Libraries on 404 Day

By |2024-08-02T16:54:53-04:00March 27th, 2014|Blog|

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!

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Celebrating Sunshine Week with FOIA Request Treasures

By |2024-08-02T12:59:23-04:00March 19th, 2014|Blog|

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. [...]

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More Trouble in Academia: the Middle Eastern Debate

By |2024-10-16T12:30:49-04:00March 18th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Press Release: Proposed South Carolina Higher Education Budget Cuts Violate First Amendment Principles, Basic Tenets of Academic Freedom

By |2019-03-06T14:22:42-05:00March 18th, 2014|Press Releases|

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 [...]

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Free Speech Defender Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Honored at NoVa Teen Book Festival

By |2020-01-03T14:43:18-05:00March 17th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Kennesaw State reinstates art installation, but is there more trouble brewing in Academia? Trigger warnings.

By |2020-01-03T14:38:05-05:00March 14th, 2014|Blog|

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.

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South Park‘s Matt Stone Opens Up About Censorship

By |2024-10-25T12:24:13-04:00March 14th, 2014|Blog|

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...

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Should the entertainment industry be required to help reduce children’s access to media violence?

By |2016-02-05T13:34:57-05:00February 28th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Happy Birthday to the Wonderful, the Fabulous, the Fantastic – JUDY BLUME!

By |2016-01-14T11:41:00-05:00February 12th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Vermont legislation would “refuse material support” for NSA mass data collection

By |2020-01-03T14:08:29-05:00February 5th, 2014|Blog|

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) [...]

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Oral Argument in Blum v. Holder appeal started this week

By |2020-01-03T14:08:28-05:00February 5th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Dramatists Guild to Washington DC’s Embattled Theater J: “Stand Strong”

By |2024-08-02T12:44:23-04:00January 27th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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NSA’s collection of metadata “should end,” according to new report

By |2024-10-16T12:36:15-04:00January 23rd, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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ProPublica – Debunking Rationales for Mass Surveillance

By |2020-01-03T14:08:24-05:00January 22nd, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Did you catch it? NCAC Allies Shine in Al Jazeera Conversation About Book Censorship

By |2024-08-16T10:59:08-04:00January 16th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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Court of Appeals Ruling Kills Net Neutrality

By |2024-10-30T11:03:03-04:00January 14th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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TomDispatch on Surveillance Abuses, Past and Present

By |2024-08-02T16:39:00-04:00January 13th, 2014|Blog|

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 [...]

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