Updates

We are gratified that Commissioner Mills has indicated an intent to abandon the use of expurgated literary passages on the English Regents exam, but this response is not wholly satisfactory. Given the pervasiveness of the practice and the conflicting statements from the Education Department, it is incumbent on state education officials to provide greater assurance through credible evidence that the State Education Department will no longer censor educational materials.

About Censorship in Camouflage   Censorship in Camouflage I: The Censor Within   Censorship in Camouflage I: Free Markets and Free Expression Censorship in Camouflage II: McDonalds or McDocumenta: Artistic Freedom in a Global Economy (Panel)   Censorship in Camouflage II: McDonalds or McDocumenta: Artistic Freedom in a Global Economy (Discussion) Censorship in Camouflage I: A Project about the Unexplored [...]

Government Financing of Abstinence-Only Education Recently, the Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4122. If passed into law, H.R. 4122 would extend federal and matching state financing for abstinence-only education for another five years. The measure restricts the information that students may be provided to be consistent with the "abstinence-until marriage" message. H.R. 4122 will soon [...]

  For Immediate Release April 16, 2002 New York, NY The National Coalition Against Censorship praised today's 6-3 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition that struck down the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 as overbroad and unconstitutional. The statute that was struck down by the ruling prohibited "any visual depiction, including any photograph, [...]

We write to express concern over the decision by the University of Minnesota to establish an external review committee to evaluate publishing criteria and processes at the University of Minnesota Press.

Teens have found Not in Front of the Children educational and empowering. Here are some e-mails received by the author ...

Letters Letter to President Bush on Funding for Abstinence-Only Programs NCAC signed on to the following letter, which was drafted by Advocates for Youth: February 7, 2002 President George W. Bush The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Bush: The undersigned organizations, committed to responsible sexuality education for young people that includes age-appropriate, medically accurate information about both abstinence [...]

Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship applauded the decision of the Elgin Area School District U-46 to return Judy Blume's "Forever" to the shelves of the district's middle school libraries. The decision to reinstate "Forever" came as the result of a 5-2 vote by the School District U-46 Board on January 22, 2002.

After delaying it for approval by its acting chair, Richard Martin, the National Endowment for the Arts rejected funding for performance artist William Pope.L's eRacism retrospective exhibition. The exhibition was scheduled to take place in 2002 at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art. MECA?the lead applicant in a consortium proposal which also included two other [...]

Winner of the American Library Association’s 2002 Eli M. Oboler Award for the Best Work in the Area of Intellectual Freedom Not In Front Of The Children: "Indecency," Censorship, and the Innocence of  Youth by Marjorie Heins Published by Hill and Wang 2001 Now in paperback! Purchase from Powells: From Huckleberry Finn to Harry Potter, from Internet filters to the [...]

We write to ask you to reconsider the AAP's November 2001 Policy Statement on Media Violence. It contains many misstatements about social-science research on media effects. Your organization's views about the mass media's impact on children are entitled to respect, but professional opinion should not be confused with scientific evidence.

A group of media scholars asked the American Academy of Pediatrics today to reconsider its November 2001 Policy Statement on Media Violence because of its "many misstatements about social-science research on media effects." The scholars cited both the Policy Statement's factual inaccuracies and its "overall distortions and failure to acknowledge many serious questions about the interpretation of media violence studies."

News: San Antonio's city council has agreed to pay the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center $550,000 for cutting the group's funding four years ago. The money is part of a settlement reached in the center's "viewpoint discrimination" lawsuit, which was prompted by a previous council's actions. Negotiations began in May to end the lawsuit after U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, October 2, 2001 Internet filters are hopelessly flawed, according to a comprehensive survey released today by the National Coalition Against Censorship's Free Expression Policy Project. Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report offers a complete, easy-to-use summary of existing tests, studies, and reports on the over—and under—blocking propensities of the major programs and products designed to [...]

  On Thursday, September 20, 2001, the National Coalition Against Censorship and five other organizations filed an amici curae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union. Ashcroft v. ACLU is a challenge to the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) passed by Congress in 1998. Struck down by lower courts, COPA criminalizes [...]

Resources NCAC Letter Submitted to the Albany Times Union About The Vagina Monologues Ad   September 6, 2001 Letters To the Editor The Albany Times Union To the Editor: I understand that the Times Union has decided not to run advertisements about an upcoming production of "The Vagina Monologues," a play that has packed theaters in New York City and [...]

At their August 2, 2001 meeting, the Cultural Affairs Commission reaffirmed their support for Susan Narduli's work at LAX. They decided there was no reason to continue reassessing the work. NCAC congratulates the Commission for taking a principled position!

The Board of Directors of the Brookings Arts Council in South Dakota has reconsidered its decision to exclude Joy Crane's "Chastity Belt Circa 2001" from 25th Annual Juried Art Exhibit. Ms. Crane was recently invited to re-submit her work.

Fort Wayne, Indiana On July 20, 2001, U.S. District Judge William C. Lee ruled that a student has the right to direct a controversial play in a state university theater and that the plaintiffs failed to show how the production would violate the establishment clause of the Constitution, which requires a separation of church and state. The play, Terrence McNally's [...]

On July 3, 2001, District Judge James K. Singleton ordered Anchorage, Alaska, to reinstall a gay pride exhibit at Z.J. Loussac Library after ruling that the city's library policy was too vague. The lawsuit arose after the city removed a gay pride display from Loussac Library on June 5, 2001. The Alaska Civil Liberties Union sued, saying the city violated [...]

The National Coalition Against Censorship, the nation's leading anti-censorship organization, today applauded the just-released government report "The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Behavior." The Report concludes that comprehensive sexuality education should begin early in life, should include information on contraception and safer-sex techniques, and should convey tolerance toward gay and lesbian people. Two weeks [...]

The Alaska Civil Liberties Union (AkCLU) filed a lawsuit today in Anchorage Superior Court alleging that Mayor George Wuerch's removal of a PrideFest exhibit from the Loussac Library display area constitutes a blatant violation of the right to free speech and the rights of the public to receive information, guaranteed in the Alaska Constitution and the First Amendment to the [...]

  11:00 AM (EST) Hilton Garden Inn, 815 14th Street, Washington, DC 20005 Thirty-five prominent national organizations will release a Joint Statement Against Abstinence-Only Education on June 12, 2001, at a national news conference in Washington, DC. Spearheaded by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) the groups are launching a public education campaign to oppose the Congressional re-authorization of federal [...]

Student Production of mice and men cancelled   Dacula, Georgia   May 30, 2001 On May 3, 2001 a student production of Of Mice and Men was to open at Dacula High School in Dacula, Georgia, until Principal Donald Nutt abruptly canceled it on May 1st. The reported reason for the action by Nutt was because the student actors involved [...]

No one has to watch a program they do not like, or purchase music they find offensive. Each of us is free to comment on anything we find objectionable by expressing our views publicly or to producers of entertainment products

A group of prominent free speech organizations are encouraging the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents to uphold principles of artistic freedom as they prepare to discuss the fate of a controversial work of art in the Museum of International Folk Art.

Joint Statement of Free Expression and Arts Organizations Opposing Mayor Giuliani's "Decency" Subcommittee The undersigned organizations oppose the formation of a "decency standards" subcommittee determining restrictions as to what art could be displayed in publicly funded institutions in New York City. Deaf to the outcry of protest, which followed his promise to form such a committee, on Tuesday, April 3, [...]

Today, a number of prominent free speech groups are expressing concern over student reaction on several campuses to a controversial ad that recently ran in college newspapers across the country.

  Today, numerous organizations concerned with free speech and academic freedom are urging lawmakers and the Penn State University Administration to respect students' rights in response to a student event—"Sex Faire"—that was held in early February on the campus of Penn State. The event, funded by Womyn's Concerns, an organization of students at PSU, was organized to educate students about [...]

  NCAC has joined other free expression organizations to protest Congress' latest effort to censor the Internet. The new law, the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires public schools and libraries that use federal funds to provide Internet services to block images that are "harmful to minors." Adult access to such material would be restricted too, although adults may request [...]

Our annual event honoring free speech defenders.

"Although requiring parental permission stops short of a total ban, we believe that this restriction denies many children the opportunity to encounter some extraordinary books that they may otherwise never know"

Embarrassed by an illustration of a vagina in a high school science textbook, school board members in Lynchburg, Virginia refused to approve the book unless the picture was covered or cut out. Some anatomical parts, apparently, are best unseen. Read more: » Freedom Forum: Trying to shut out the light by banning books        

Network Opposes Potter Policy The Holland Sentinel April 19, 2000 To the Editor: The undersigned organizations, members of the Free Expression Network, oppose the restrictions imposed on the use of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books by Zeeland Public Schools Superintendent Gary Feenstra on Nov. 22. These restrictions include a ban on classroom readings of the Potter books; a requirement of [...]

Oberlin, Ohio December 1999 Background: The mother of an 8-year-old girl is facing prosecution for “child pornography,” along with an investigation into charges of child abuse, because she took pictures of her daughter nude in the bath. To the best of our knowledge, there is no basis, other than the nude pictures (which a photography lab worker reported to the [...]

A coalition of college and high school students has formed an S.O.S. campaign (Save Our Science, Save Our Schools) to restore evolution and scientific cosmology to science education and to prevent the teaching of creationism as science. Read more: » Free Inquiry: Students Launch Pro-Science Movement      

Summary: This testimony will discuss the implications of the First Amendment for proposals to rate video games and other entertainment for violent content, and to restrict the sale of such materials to minors. Unlike obscenity, the Supreme Court has never carved out an exception in First Amendment analysis for violent speech and images. This is true even where minors are [...]

Introduction | The First Amendment and Public Schools | Censorship | How Big a Problem is Censorship? | Roles and Responsibilities | Censorship Policies | Resource Guide   NCAC presents the following collection of materials on the topic of censorship in schools for the use of students, educators, and parents everywhere. This information is not intended as legal advice. If [...]