Obama and his team pledged to work on overturning the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, which only allows gays and lesbians to serve in the U.S. military if they keep secret their sexual orientation. According to the Boston Globe, although getting rid of this law is on Obama’s agenda, he “does not want to ask lawmakers to do so [...]
JuicyCampus CEO Matt Ivester says it’s because of global economic downturn and not enough revenue. Seems likely. It also seems likely that the mounting debate on colleges whether or not to ban JuicyCampus from the college networks, and attorney general investigations into consumer fraud may have tipped the balance, so that a 2009 filled with litigation and banning on colleges didn’t [...]
School Library Journal this month takes a look at self-censorship. After interviewing 655 media specialists across the county this fall, they found that 70% of librarians who responded to the survey chose not to purchase some books because they fear backlash from parents. The article also covers the problems with labeling books for objectionable content, and the ways [...]
The scene: Flickr permanently deletes accounts There are three Flickr* censorship stories floating around the internet at the moment (there are ongoing Flickr censorship stories). *Flickr – which let’s users upload photos and videos – is owned by Yahoo. One story is about photos taken down from a Flickr account (on threat of closing the account) for “offensive content.” That [...]
We were disappointed to hear that the school board in Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District voted last night to ban Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya from English classes at Orestimba High School. The 4-1 vote in favor of censorship upholds the superintendent’s decision to pull the book. In January, the Kids’ Right to Read Project was joined by PEN [...]
Time Magazine’s cover story this week is on the promise of stem cell research, and the scientists who persisted developing this field despite obstacles mounted by President George W. Bush. In 2001, without formal rulemaking or even an Executive Order, President Bush announced a policy that effectively put an end to federally funded embryonic stem cell research. He based his [...]
It’s censorship projection day today. Leslie Harris, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology weighs in on the political landscape for internet censorship post-COPA at the Huffington Post: So what happens next? Will Congress once again beat against the tide and enact yet another Internet censorship law? … Will the Obama administration slam the coffin on Internet [...]
Russell Bradburn writes at examiner.com: All politicians, left or right, engage in this sort of media scapegoating, and games are a particularly soft target for it. … What has our new president to say on the issue? Not much, apparently. The Obama campaign went as far as to place ads in the Xbox 360 game Burnout paradise, so Obama clearly [...]
The Daily Collegian reports that charges of failure to disperse and disorderly conduct have been refiled against Michael Felletter, the student photographer who was accused of "taking photographs that would excite the crowd and encourage destructive behavior" after taking photographs on assignment at a riot following an Ohio State football game. The charges were dropped last week only to be [...]
A woman in Topeka, Kansas, has requested that the library board restrict other adults' access to four books in the adult section of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. The sexual content in The Joy of Sex, Sex for Busy People, The Lesbian Kama Sutra, and The Joy of Gay Sex is fully protected under the First Amendment. The [...]
On Friday, January 23rd, President Obama lifted the “global gag rule” by executive order. The policy prohibited international organizations receiving federal funding to talk about abortion as an option. In the Winter 2008 issue of Censorship News, in our “issues to watch” with the upcoming Obama Administration, we wrote: The “global gag rule,” created by executive order, prohibits federally-funded international [...]
We're happy to report that MSU has removed it's charge of "spamming" against student government leader Kara Spencer. Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Director Cindy Cohn said, We're pleased that MSU has reversed course and will not only drop the charge against Ms. Spencer, but will reconsider its flawed policies. When a school's anti-spam policy requires students to get approval before [...]
On his first day in office, Barack Obama issued a memo reviving The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The memo states: “The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” This is a clear change from the policy of the Bush administration. As Slate puts it: Under Bush-Ashcroft, the presumption [...]
According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, charges against the student photographer Michael Felletter are likely to be refiled. Michael Felletter, a photographer for Penn State’s newspaper The Daily Collegian, was charged with disorderly conduct and failure to disperse after taking photographs during a post-Ohio State football game riot and disobeying orders from policemen to leave the [...]
According to The Bismarck Tribune, author John Berendt has a new respect for North Dakota, after his book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was first pulled, then reinstated in the Beulah High School library. While he was initially shocked at the book's removal after parent's complained about "pornographic" content, he followed the news and comments and was [...]
Rachel Vail is the author of over 30 books and short stories for children and young adults, including her most recent, critically-acclaimed, picture book, Jibberwillies at Night (2008). A strong proponent of the freedom to read, Ms. Vail spoke with the Kids’ Right to Read Project about censorship and her experiences and responses to it as a writer.
The New York Times reported yesterday on the fight in Texas over science standards. The standards for 20 years have required that science be taught in a way that show the “strengths and weaknesses” of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The third draft, passed in December 2008 didn’t include this phrase, but this year 7 of the 15 members of the [...]
The new president is giving every mildly liberal person reason to hope their pet cause might be advaced in the next four years. So what about my pet cause: creative freedom? Things appear optimistic. After all Barack Obama enters office with the first-ever presidential arts platform drafted during the campaign. Among other things the platform promises increased funds for the [...]
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, under President Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, what you read could still be held against you. Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act allows federal agents to demand bookstore and library records when investigating terrorism or espionage. Section 215 also places a gag order on the bookseller or librarian. The provision is [...]
Today, the Supreme Court declared that it won’t revive COPA, the Child Online Protection Act. Passed in 1998, the bill would “would have barred Web sites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet.” The March 2007 federal appeals court decision ruled that COPA violated the First Amendment. In July 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third [...]
It's a hot time for book challenges, bans and questions. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: pulled from the high school library, back in the library today. Satanic Verses: Salman Rushdie reflects on attempted censorship by his 20-year fatwa The Bookseller of Kabul: "temporarily banned in Wyandotte Public Schools" while Superintendent reviews the book. Night Talk: one parent [...]
The Free Expression Network* has collected commentary and analysis from FEN members on the shifting political landscape and the opportunities and challenges free expression now faces. A diverse group of organizations dealing with free expression weigh in: including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Student Press Law Center, and American Association of University Professors. […]
There’s been much buzz in the conservative blogosphere, talk radio and newspapers about a predicted return of the Fairness Doctrine. A group of Republican Senators have pulled together a bill that “would prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, which would suppress free speech by requiring the government to monitor political views and decide what constitutes [...]
Louisiana: On January 13, 2009, Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education passed a policy that gives teachers more leeway to use materials outside of the science textbooks. Supporters say this would foster critical thinking in students, critics says that this is merely a guise for permitting creationism in classrooms. Crack the code: how “critical thinking” is used to support [...]
An art installation, sponsored by the new Czeck EU Presidency, and displayed in the European Council building in Brussels has become a litmus test for EU sensitivities. The conceptual artist David ?erný was commisssioned to invite 27 artists from EU member states to represent their country as they see it. The idea was to gather specifically personal, non-government approved and possibly [...]
Now Twittering: AJGaza The New York Times recently printed an article by Noel Cohen about the limited access Americans have to Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israel’s invasion of Gaza. This, as Cohen notes, is in part because the station is carried only by cable providers in Burlington, Vt.; Toledo, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. Why is it so important that Americans [...]
We are glad to hear that “The Book of Bunny Suicides,” by the British author Andy Riley is back on the shelves of Central Linn High School Library, in Halsey, Oregon. The book was challenged this fall by the parent of a student who had refused to return the book stating that its content is unsuitable for children. [...]
Over the past eight years, government censorship of science has ranged from silencing researchers to creating policies that interfered with the free exchange of scientific ideas. Government censorship of science includes distortion and suppression of data, and threatens the public’s access to truthful and accurate information. Though many examples of censorship and suppression have been revealed, it is likely in [...]
David Marchese at Spin has a thoughtful piece about the distribution of hate music, and how the marketplace of ideas is better at tamping down hate speech than censorship.
The latest scandal around Facebook's ban on images of nursing mothers, which show a glimpse of the areola or nipple, only presents us with the latest case of nipplephobia - an extreme panic reaction at the view of the female nipple (to my knowledge the male nipple fails to exert such power). Facebook's action was a misguided enforcement of its [...]
On January 8th, we reported that a San Franciscan chiropractor was suing a former patient, Christopher Norberg, over a negative review on Yelp. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, this case has since been settled (the details of the settlement remain confidential), and the offending post has been taken down to be replaced with: “A misunderstanding between both parties led [...]
Yesterday, we covered the recent decision of student journalists at Faribault High School to move their newspaper, the Echo, online after it was shut down by the district superintendent. The superintendent shut down the newspaper after students refused to comply with the superintendent’s request to review an article prior to publication. Instead, students decided to form their own online newspaper, [...]
Not everyone agrees with Round Rock ISD Superintendent Jesus Chavez's decision to ban TTYL by Lauren Myracle from district middle school libraries. A parent who opposes the superintendent's decision to pull the book wrote an excellent response in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Read the Kids' Right to Read Project's letter to the Board of Trustees here.
The Star Tribune reports that students of Faribault High School, Minnesota, have moved their newspaper online after it was shut down by the school's superintendent. The superintendent shut down the paper after student editors refused to show him an article about an investigation into a middle school teacher before going to press. Now students will publish their newspaper Echo exclusively [...]
The Washington Post reports the death of Richard Seaver, the censorship-fighting editor and translator who worked with Barney Rosset at Grove Press to publish such controversial books as Tropic of Cancer, Naked Lunch and The Story of O and who helped bring Samuel Beckett to a wider English-speaking audience.
Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center sheds some light on the topic of internet censorship in a recent article in the North Country Gazette. He argues that, while the first amendment does not apply to private companies, privately owned internet companies have an unprecedented amount of control over the speech of large groups of people. For hundreds of millions [...]
A student's sculpture project at South Kingstown High School was mutilated by her art teacher even before it was completed. The reason was that the anatomically correct figure sported a penis. Apparently penises could be viewed by students when they are studying art, but not reproduced in their own art work. While requiring student sculpture to be true to the [...]
UPDATE: Earlier today, Yelp users were protesting the lawsuit by posting a rash of negative comments about Biegel on Yelp. Since then, these negative comments have been removed, presumably by Yelp, which, according to its terms of service, "reserves the right (but has no obligation) to remove or suppress User Content from the Site at its sole discretion for any [...]
On January 6, 2009, a new California law that strengthens First Amendment protections for high school and college newspapers went into effect. The law in California previously protected students from punishment for articles in newspapers, but didn't protect the school paper advisors. According to a statement in the LA Times from a lobbyist for the bill, "[i]n the last three [...]
Recently, there have been reports that content involving the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is mysteriously disappearing from Facebook. The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) has complained that “many threads in various pro-Israel and pro-JIDF groups have mysteriously disappeared,” while others have complained that anti-Zionist content has disappeared, and one girl alleged that Facebook has prevented her from using hashtags such as [...]
