There is some good news in the prolonged battle of fleeting expletives in the media, FCC v. Fox Television Stations. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the FCC’s ban on fleeting expletives is unconstitutionally vague. This comes off the heels of a Supreme Court decision upholding the FCC’s authority under the Administrative Procedure Act to issue regulations [...]
After a long and drawn-out challenge process, this week Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon finally prevailed in Franklin Township! The denouement to this extended drama came down to a special convening of the Franklin Township school board set for this past Monday evening (July 6th). No one knew how it would turn out. New members of the school board, whose [...]
Over the holiday weekend, the town of Bemidji, Minnesota removed a piece of public artwork by Deborah Davis entitled Gaea. It is a statue of a beaver, one of ten in the city. The reason for its removal was over what was depicted on the beaver’s belly. The artist said it is supposed to be a depiction of two hands [...]
The activities and viewpoints of Elena Kagan have been put under a microscope since congressional hearings on her nomination to the Supreme Court have started, but one area that senators have not questioned her in are her thoughts and work on the First Amendment. Based on her writings and speeches, both in court and out, it seems that Ms. Kagan [...]
A Second Life user films a demonstration opposing the virtual world's ban of Rose Borchovski's The Kiss, which was intended to be shown at SL's 7th birthday celebration. For more about the incident, see "Second Life Censors Machinema Film Over Artistic Nudity."
We were gratified to learn of a kind mention last week from librarian Lizzy Burns in her thoughtful blog A CHAIR, A FIREPLACE & A TEA COZY concerning one example of the kind of work the NCAC does every day. You can find the original post here. The latest wrinkle in the story: Revolutionary Voices has been pulled from not [...]
The Free Speech Leadership Council gathered on June 23, 2010 for “Playwrights on Censorship: A Conversation with Edward Albee, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, and Adam Rapp.” It was perhaps the first time ever these luminous playwrights conversed in the same room! Time Out New York’s Theater Editor David Cote moderated the discussion and Jane Friedman, Chair of the Council, [...]
The online virtual environment Second Life headlines the latest censorship scandal: they took down an art exhibit because SL community guidelines do not allow nudity unless it is confined to a space that has a “mature” or “adult” rating. The work in question was an installation based on Rose Borchovski’s Susa Bubble, an anthology of machinema films following the surreal, [...]
As we reported in our latest edition of Censorship News, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon was recently removed from an Indiana high school’s AP English class on April 28 after a parent and school board members complained about its content. Two days later, the book was returned to the class when a committee of educators and parents [...]
Should states withhold film incentive because a film criticizes its anti-immigration policies or shows too much violence, or because a state official just finds it “objectionable”? As a way to bring business and revenue to their regions, various states have started creating tax incentives for filmmakers to make their movie there. A film’s cast and crew can bring millions of [...]
Take a look at this panel from an iPad graphic novel app based on James Joyce’s 20th century classic, Ulysses. There is a part in the story where a character, Buck Mulligan, strips down and jumps in the Irish Sea for a swim. Here it is in Joyce's original: He nodded to himself as he drew off his trousers and [...]
MMS distorted environmental assessment of offshore drilling in Alaska (2010) In March 2010, just days before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that during the Bush administration, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the agency responsible for regulating the oil industry, had altered the work of environmental scientists or pressured them to produce environmental [...]
Two teachers at Norview High School in Norfolk, VA were recently put on administrative leave by the school after a parent complained about a video that she saw in Government class. The video informed its audience on how to assert their constitutional rights during various encounters with police, such as during a car or house search. It was accompanied by [...]
You might think that an accurate calculation of the amount of oil flowing into the gulf would be crucial to understanding the environmental impact of the spill. You might also think that the nation’s top scientists would be a valuable partner to BP in the cleanup effort. Apparently, BP would disagree. Or do they have other priorities? The oil giant [...]
In one of the more recent public controversies to hit the NCAC’s arts advocacy radar, two murals from a series commissioned for a Cincinnati Arts Center (CAC) exhibition were recently destroyed – one vandalized by unknown actors, the other whitewashed by a disgruntled site owner. The two murals, by former street artist Shepard Fairey (whose best known images include the [...]
As evidence mounts that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might have been averted if experts’ warnings had been heeded, a troubling picture of suppression of scientific information in favor of a push to “drill, baby, drill” is emerging. Only days before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a report by the government accountability office (GAO) revealed that [...]
The Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear Curious Theatre Company v. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, meaning that the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that smoking can be banned from a stage stands. This means that issues could arise in any state where there is a catch-all smoking ban in public areas, without an exemption [...]
NCAC recently fielded a plea for help from a Boston University student filmmaker, at the College of Communication, whose film Wake Up had been removed from regular class consideration and critique for reasons which depended very much on point of view. The student thought it was art. The faculty called it pornography. What was not in dispute was that the [...]
Get news in your inbox. Submit your email address to receive Censorship News delivered straight to you. You’ll get a pdf of the print version of Censorship News as well as regular updates on censorship issues. In this issue of Censorship News, an Indiana community ponders the value of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon: To read, or Not to Read, [...]
“FIT endorses the right of artists to freely express their views through their work” reads a sign at the beginning of a student photography show on display in one of the institute’s lobbies. The sign also warns that artwork may be inappropriate for some people. That didn’t stop the Dean from requesting that a photograph by Jessica Chow be covered [...]
Violence against those who create and disseminate controversial words and images is not new. But for the last couple of centuries, commitment to free speech has trumped fear of violence in Western liberal democracies. As late as 1989, Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses continued to be published and read in the face of a fatwa issued against its author and in the face [...]
Violence against those who create and disseminate controversial words and images is not new. But for the last couple of centuries, commitment to free speech has trumped fear of violence in Western liberal democracies. As late as 1989, Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses continued to be published and read in the face of a fatwa issued against its author and in [...]
The Rancocas Valley School Board in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, chose to remove one of the three challenged books at its meeting on May 4. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology and two other books were challenged because they appear on a list of books on GLBTQ themes created by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The objectors [...]
Temecula city management, which was responsible for removing a nude artwork from an exhibition in January, has decided not to create a written policy for the selection of artworks in city-owned exhibition spaces. Instead, Temecula’s Community Services Director Herman Parker (or someone designated by him) will partake in the selection process. NCAC Director of Programs, Svetlana Mintcheva, says: It is [...]
Scott Southworth, the district attorney of Juneau County, Wisconsin, is threatening to prosecute teachers who comply with a new state law that requires sex education courses to include “medically accurate, age-appropriate” information, including information on contraceptives. Southworth claims the law “promotes the sexual assault of children,” “[u]ndermines parental authority,” “requires school districts to condone controversial sexual behavior,” and “provides access [...]
This is a familiar debate. In 1948, the Supreme Court rejected the claim that graphic crime stories and reports corrupt minors and contribute to juvenile crime and anti-social behavior.
The 3rd Circuit has agreed to rehear two seemingly contradictory online student speech cases decided in February (see here for more about the cases). It has vacated the previous opinions and all members of the court will hear arguments in both cases on June 3. The cases were decided based on the criterion of whether the speech was likely to [...]
In a much anticipated decision, the Supreme Court yesterday struck down a federal statute making it a crime to create, sell or possess “a depiction of animal cruelty.” In the 8 – 1 opinion, the Court characterized the law as "a criminal prohibition of alarming breadth," because of its potential to criminalize a vast array of legally protected expression, including [...]
Last week, a panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ban on the advertising of alcohol in college newspapers. The case involved a challenge to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission’s expansive ban on the advertising of beer, wine and mixed drinks in student-run publications throughout the state of Virginia. Beyond the obvious economic implications (the newspapers [...]
On Tuesday, a federal appeals court dealt a legal setback to supporters of “net neutrality.” The court ruled (Comcast v. FCC) that the FCC does not presently have the authority to control an ISP’s network management practices and therefore cannot require Comcast (one of a small number of powerful corporations whose networks comprise the Internet) to treat all internet content equally. [...]
Last summer, we reported that the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) were mounting a creative challenge to the constitutionality of gene patents, a questionable practice which till now was supported by U.S. Government policy. The US Patent and Trademark Office has regularly granted property interests in certain types of living organisms and their constituent parts, including genes, the [...]
One March 19, 2010 the FDA issued a broad set of regulations directly restricting tobacco companies’ ability to advertise and promote their products. The regulations were issued following President Obama’s signing of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act last June, which granted the FDA extensive authority to create such regulations. The landmark legislation negates the Supreme Court’s 2000 [...]
The cancellation of Terrence McNally’s play Corpus Christi by Tarleton State University, under pressure from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and others, is an affront to academic freedom and First Amendment principles of free speech. The play was denounced by Tarleton’s president, Dominic Dottavio, who called it “crude and irreverent.” Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst opined that [...]
“[W]hen a public school purports to allow students to express themselves, it must respect the students’ free speech rights,” Justice Alito said in an opinion this week. His words came in a powerful dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a case involving students’ musical choice for the graduation ceremony. Justice Alito, the conservative judge who took his [...]
On March 27 from 1-4 at the New York Film Academy, NCAC partners with Kahlil Almustafa, Emily Kunstler, Reel Works, and Global Action Project for an afternoon of making connections and exploring the power of youth-made media. Stop by to view the winning films from our annual Film Contest (Free Speech in School - Does it Exist?)! Hip hop poet [...]
Last Friday the Texas Board of Education voted along party lines to approve a new school curriculum that will, in effect, rewrite history. The new social studies curriculum will address what one board member referred to as a “skewed” history with a “liberal bias.” Although the proposed changes may individually seem relatively minor, they are not innocuous. For example, the [...]
In February, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued contradictory opinions involving online student speech. The losing sides of both Layshock and Blue Mountain are asking the Court to rehear their cases before a full court. Both parties agree that the two opinions, issued the same day, seemingly contradict each other. Even the winning parties agree that the conflicting rulings [...]
Join us at the New York Film Academy for our second Youth Voices Uncensored event on March 27th from 1-4pm for an afternoon of youth films, fun prizes, and great performances! Meet the winners of the 6th Annual YFEN film contest and make connections while exploring the power of youth-media. It's FREE and open to the public! Who: National Coalition [...]
Concerned because the deletion of government emails has hampered investigations into possible official wrong-doing, NCAC joins OpenTheGovernment.org in requesting Congress to act to insure the preservation of government records. "Concerned with government openness and accountability," the letter reads, "the undersigned organizations respectfully request ... hearings on the apparent destruction of e-mails in the Department of Justice to determine how the [...]
The United States has a tradition of generally broad protection of freedom of speech, which has persisted in the Internet age. Thus American courts have struck down most laws attempting to limit content on the Internet, including provisions of the Communications Decency Act restricting indecent speech on the Internet (in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997)) [...]