The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) announces the launch of a new resource, Art Censorship Index: Post-October 7th, documenting the recent spike in censorship of art and artists invoking Israel or Palestine. Artworks and artists referencing the subject of Israel and Palestine have long been subjects of controversy and/or censorship, but following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and [...]
Today, along with eleven other free expression groups, NCAC issued a letter to two congressional committees regarding their request to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) of twenty groups that the committees alleged had supported or funded recent college protests. NCAC's deep concern stems from both the breadth of the committees' requests for records (20 organizations, without [...]
When political passions run high, disagreement is often expressed as vocal protest. Cultural institutions in a democratic society need to be prepared to manage such protests without silencing the voices they target. Instead, vague “safety concerns” are used to justify the suppression of speech within US cultural and educational institutions with alarming frequency. On April 15th, the Provost and [...]
Today, NCAC issued a letter of concern to the leadership of Indiana University, imploring the university to reverse its December 2023 decision to cancel the upcoming retrospective exhibition of renowned Palestinian-American abstract painter, Samia Halaby. “Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy” was to open in February at the university’s Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art and feature more than [...]
Intimidation, doxing, blacklists, cancellations. In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, a wave of extreme intolerance towards speech critical of Israel and supportive of Palestine has swept across cultural and educational institutions. In the United States and Europe, students and professors are being penalized, writers canceled, and artists censored for expressing [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the principal of Framingham High School after receiving reports that the school forced a student to remove a shirt that expressed support for Palestine. We understand that in some schools, the student's shirts may indeed create a risk for substantial disruption, however, we urge the school to ensure that they have taken [...]
MESA, ARIZONA - Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship's (NCAC) Arts and Culture Advocacy Program (ACAP) and the ACLU of Arizona released a joint statement responding to the City of Mesa's pledge to exercise greater control over artistic content in future exhibitions at Mesa Arts Center, which may lead to the prohibition of artwork that is deemed "controversial" or "critical" of government agencies. This commitment comes on the heels of the local and national [...]
NEW YORK— Every year, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) honors leaders in the fight for free speech defenders during its benefit, LET ME SPEAK: a Celebration & Benefit of Free Speech & Its Defenders. This year’s event, presented by Macmillan Publishers, will highlight the contributions of Juno Dawson, Coco Fusco, John Sargent, Madeline Scotti, and Nadine Strossen. Critically acclaimed [...]
NEW YORK - In a joint letter, the National Coalition Against Censorship’s (NCAC) Arts and Culture Advocacy Program (ACAP) and the ACLU of Arizona demand that officials in Mesa, Arizona, allow the opening of an art exhibit, Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent, which includes a controversial work, My Florist is a Dick, by renowned artist Shepard Fairey. City officials [...]
Update 8/7/2023: The City of San Mateo has responded that it will reinstate its public exhibition programs after it establishes a more detailed review policy for the artworks that are invited for display. The City also confirms Mr. Rios' exhibition was met with "concerns from members of the public and City staff that the display was not supportive of [...]
Lewis-Clark State College announced that it will pull several artworks addressing abortion care from an upcoming exhibition for fear of violating the state’s No Public Funds for Abortion Act LEWISTON, Idaho – In a letter sent to Lewis-Clark State College President Dr. Cynthia Pemberton, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, and the National Coalition Against [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship is deeply concerned by the decision to cancel the publication of a self-help book by cartoonist Scott Adams because of offensive remarks he made on YouTube. It comes during a time of an increased policing of ideas. We are in the midst of a national censorship crisis in public schools and libraries. Pressure on [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) regarding their decision in March to cancel the exhibition Wall + Response over objections to an idea expressed in one of the pieces. It is our understanding that when Wall + Response was approved by library officials, the poems and murals comprising the project [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have cowritten a letter to the Pennridge School District in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, demanding changes to a proposed policy that would unconstitutionally restrict the communications that students can distribute both on and off school grounds. The proposed policy is shockingly broad and impermissibly vague. If implemented it [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the Superintendent of Foster-Glocester Regional School District in Glocester, Rhode Island, after students at Ponaganset High School were silenced for expressing their personal views. The students in question, according to The Providence Journal, brought “anti-tolerant” flags to school following a Pride Month celebration. It is unclear if the students faced disciplinary action, but [...]
A York, South Carolina, councilperson blocked a constituent from posting on her Facebook page, a violation of the First Amendment as the courts have ruled the social media pages can serve as public forums.
Port Allegany School District in Pennsylvania may have violated a student's First Amendment rights by requiring them to remove clothing with the message "Let's Go Brandon".
School districts are the most active battlefield in the American culture wars today. Teachers need our support; they need our trust; they need to have the freedom to exercise their professional judgment.
North Thurston Public Schools in Lacey, Washington, recently barred students from protesting on its campuses.
NCAC is urging Eastport-South Manor Central School District in Manorville, New York, to allow students of differing views to display art on school grounds.
A student’s Black Lives Matter poster was censored at Hillsborough Middle School in New Jersey because of apparent disagreement with the political views it expressed.
In July 2021, echoing the rhetoric of the 1950s McCarthy era and in flagrant disregard of fundamental constitutional principles, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago urged the city’s commissioners to condition city funding for Illuminate Coral Gables, a public art show, on the exclusion of two of the participating artists because of their purported political views. As artists, arts professionals and free speech organizations we are deeply troubled by demands to censor a public art show so as to penalize political viewpoints.
An exhibition, Veterans' Voices: Painted Realities, at Walt Disney Family Museum left out two controversial images by artist Amos Gregory.
NCAC criticizes Ardmore schools in Oklahoma for banning Black Lives Matter shirts.
NCAC applauds Simon & Schuster’s decision to reject a petition from more than 200 of its employees demanding that it not publish books by former members of the Trump administration.
A Nebraska school district recently banned all protests on school grounds in violation of students' First Amendment rights.
State legislatures considering 68 bills that would limit the right to protest.
Seven states are considering legislation to ban the teaching of "divisive concepts," which encompasses certain teaching about social justice and structural inequality.
NCAC calls on the leaders of the University of Tennessee system to resist political pressure and to defend their students' rights to peacefully protest.
A timeline of free expression issues that arose following the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests for racial justice.
A timeline tracking the free expression concerns raised by emergency measures enacted to contain and manage the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.
NCAC has joined a coalition of two dozen organizations calling on Congressional leaders not to reauthorize several expired provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities by adding them as amendments to a must-pass appropriations bill or other emergency legislation. In a letter sent to Congress on September 14, NCAC and the other organizations argue that these controversial measures [...]
NCAC, joined by ten organizations, is protesting a Texas school district’s decision to remove from a school website an editorial cartoon that was part of a class assignment because it criticizes the use of violence against Black people over the course of American history, including violence by police. The assignment was canceled after the National Fraternal Order of Police complained [...]
Rights to dissent and protest cannot be sacrificed even, and perhaps particularly, in times of public emergency.
Editors Note: This statement was first published by NCAC and Defending Rights and Dissent on July 17, 2020. It was re-published on July 30, 2020 to reflect new developments and 45 additional co-signatories. Unidentified federal law enforcement agents in Portland, Oregon, have detained protesters, whisking them away in unmarked cars. This shocking practice is evocative of repressive methods used by [...]
WINDSOR, VT -- The Mt. Ascutney School District Board has removed Windsor School Principal Tiffany Riley from her position after she stated on her personal Facebook account that she disapproved of some of the tactics used by some Black Lives Matter activists. In response, NCAC has written to the school board urging them to rescind their decision to remove Ms. [...]
President Donald Trump is once again attempting to interfere with the publication of a book that he believes is critical of him. On June 16, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in an effort to block the June 23 release of The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, a book by John R. Bolton, Trump’s former national [...]
On June 15, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and PEN America joined in protesting Zoom’s decision to close the account of Humanitarian China, a U.S.-based nonprofit that promotes the development of human rights in China. Zoom acted at the request of Chinese officials who wanted to suppress a virtual meeting commemorating the [...]
Editors Note: NCAC, joined by 55 organizations, released the following statement on June 8, 2020. The American people have witnessed the bravery of health care providers and other essential workers who have put their lives on the line to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Now that we face another national crisis following the death of George Floyd, it is important to [...]
Rhetorically framed as defense of free speech, the President’s Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship, is exactly the opposite: an attempt to intimidate social media platforms into yielding to the president’s views of what speech should be allowed online. While we agree that social media platforms “function in many ways as a 21st-century equivalent of the public square” and share [...]
