Category: Features

Humor as a Weapon Against Fear in Turkey

“Humor is our weapon against fear.” These are the words that Zafer Aknar, managing editor of Leman, one of Turkey’s largest satire magazines, recently spoke regarding increased hostility towards Turkish journalists and cartoonists for the strong level of support they…

Neil Gaiman Responds to Charlie Hebdo Attack

Neil Gaiman’s outspoken advocacy for free expression is well known, so we reached out to Gaiman to comment on the Charlie Hebdo attack, and he expanded upon a tweet he sent shortly after learning about the attack: “As I tweeted…

A Moment of Speech: Charlie Hebdo’s Controversial Cartoons

Yesterday’s massacre of twelve people, including five cartoonists, at the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo have rightfully sparked international condemnation.  An outpouring of speech that includes statements from world leaders, vigils in cities across the globe, the…

Censorship 2014: Fun Home and LGBTQ Literature Targeted by Censors

In 2014, we saw one of the most blatant attacks ever perpetrated on free expression and academic freedom when the South Carolina legislature passed a questionable budget “compromise” that effectively functioned as punitive budget cuts for two universities that utilized…

Censorship 2014: Summer Reading Under Attack

Little Brother

Since most of the challenges and bans that we cover happen in schools, the summers have typically been slow news months for us in past years. So, naturally this year we took notice when challenge after challenge to books that…

Legends Revealed: Pre-Code Holiday Comics Policing Uncovered

To celebrate the holiday season, Brian Cronin of Comic Book Resources counts down the top Christmas Comic Book Legends Revealed, revealing which are fact and which are fiction. Let’s take a look at a couple of our favorites… Was Carl…

Censorship 2014: Why Are Video Games Still a Scapegoat?

Earlier this year, U.S. Legislators took another crack at the curbing the production of violent video games by enacting the Tax Reform Act of 2014, which would offer permanent tax credits to video game creators that do not make violent…