Efforts to undermine the legitimacy or independence of the press, the statement reads, “betray the country’s most cherished values and undercut one of its most significant strengths.”
NCAC’s letter condemns the producer’s actions and describes how Columbia’s University's commitment to free speech, academic freedom, and journalistic excellence are incompatible with censorship.
Author Laurie Stone was abruptly asked to censor her reading because it did not match the university's values.
Legal experts believe Trump's continued legal threats to the NY Times are empty, stunts that prove his disrespect for 1st Amendment protections.
Iconic American musician Pete Seeger was censored by CBS over an anti-war song he wanted to perform on the Smother Brothers TV show.
In honor of tonight's series finale of "30 Rock," a great show that had the balls to poke fun at NBC censors, everyone should play their "Censor It" game. The game shows lines from scripts and asks you, playing the Censor, whether such offensive and prurient material should make it on the air. After that, why not sit down and watch/re-watch the [...]
The potentially momentous case of Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television ended on June 21 not with a bang but a whimper. True, a unanimous Supreme Court vacated the FCC's rulings that the "fleeting expletives" in two TV programs and the fleeting nudity in a third were "indecent." But it did so on the narrow ground that the agency violated [...]
On Monday, June 27th, the Supreme Court announced that upon returning from its summer recess in October, it would revisit the Federal Communication Commission's rule that allows it to fine broadcasters for “indecency.” Last year, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC was violating broadcasters' free-speech rights. The Court also stated that [...]
While the display of Janet Jackson’s naked breast and nipple during a 2005 CBS broadcast of the Superbowl may have been fleeting, the legal ramifications stemming from the incident are anything but. Last time we covered this case (here and here) the Supreme Court had vacated the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2007 decision in the matter of FCC v. [...]
Most Americans today get their information and entertainment from the mass media - radio, television, newspapers, movies, and the Internet. The companies that own these mass media outlets thus have a powerful influence over our culture, our political system, and the ideas that inform public discourse. In the past half-century, media companies have grown into large conglomerates. With this growth [...]
As the Washington Post reported earlier this week, a recent study that correlates pregnancy rates among sexually active teens to the amount of TV sex they watched disregards a key issue: teen access to contraceptives and information on contraception. According to the study, which was published in Pediatrics, the more sexual content on TV that sexually active teens watch, the [...]
CommLaw Blog is covering FCC v Fox Television in the Supreme Court. But as Marjorie Heins points out at the Free Expression Policy Project, it looks like the case will turn on what should be censored for "indecency" rather than whether or not the FCC's censorship poses a threat to the First Amendment. She writes: Anyone hoping to hear outrage [...]
Read the brief below; click here for a full screen view.
Defend Free Speech on the Public Airwaves update: 3/26/2007: It appears that the initial update we provided on MPBN's response was misinformed. While the station has voiced its desire to keep Robert Skoglund on the air, it appears to remain committed to its "non-political" speech restrictions, as explained in this statement. While we respect MPBN's commitment to non-partisan, even-handed [...]
S. 2056, a bill to increase the penalties for transmission of "obscene, indecent, and profane material" by TV and radio broadcasters to $275,000 for each violation (from 27,000) is currently on the Senate Legislative Calendar.
A coalition of 16 journalism groups today urged the Bush administration to abide by guidelines the Pentagon and media groups established after the 1991 Persian Gulf War if an invasion of Iraq occurs. The plea came as the coalition issued an updated Statement of Principles first released a year ago. Journalists remember how their hands were tied a decade [...]
