Every April the Virginia-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression bestows its Muzzle Awards, dishonoring “those individuals and institutions responsible for the more egregious or ridiculous affronts to free speech during the preceding year.” In a departure…
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Dapier Receives Intellectual Freedom Award for Persepolis Research
Jarrett Dapier, the library science scholar whose Freedom of Information Act Request helped to uncover the truth about Chicago Public Schools administrators’ 2013 effort to ban Persepolis from classrooms and libraries, is receiving some well-earned recognition from the American Library…
Bulgarian TV Network Drops Cartoonist Who Mocked Prime Minister
Bulgarians are accusing the privately-owned TV network NOVA of bowing to government pressure last week when it removed all of cartoonist Chavdar Nikolov’s work from its website. Nikolov’s latest animated political cartoon had mocked Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s apparent support…
Oregon School Bans Sex Ed Book, Disciplines Librarian Who Bought It
The classic — and frequently challenged — sex ed book It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris has reportedly been removed from an elementary school library in Rainier, Oregon, and the librarian who included it in the collection has been disciplined…
Zunar Trial to Proceed After Court Rejects Challenge to Sedition Act
Malaysia’s High Court yesterday rejected cartoonist Zunar’s challenge to the country’s Sedition Act, clearing the way for his long-delayed trial on nine counts of sedition. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 43 years in prison. A…
Egyptian Puppet Charged With “Violating Public Morality”
A wildly popular satirical puppet who appears on Egyptian television is being called into court on June 26, accused of “violating public morality” with her bawdy jokes. The case against Abla Fahita (Aunt Fajita) was brought by lawyer Samir Sabry,…
VICTORY in Michigan: The Bluest Eye Remains in Northville AP Class
In a victory for the freedom to read, the school board in Northville, Michigan voted unanimously last night to keep Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in the curriculum for AP English Literature and Composition. To accommodate parents who had expressed…
CBLDF Joins Defense of The Bluest Eye in Michigan School District
Toni Morrison’s classic novel The Bluest Eye is under fire in yet another school district, with parents in Northville, Michigan saying the book might inspire “deviant behavior” and contains “negative references…against the Christian faith,” among many other complaints. In advance…
Two Graphic Novels Among ALA’s Ten Most Challenged Books of 2015
Every year, National Library Week starts off with a bang: the release of the American Library Association’s Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books from the previous year. The list is compiled by ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom from librarians’…
First Online Censorship Report Confirms Pitfalls of Social Media Moderation
Late last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Visualizing Impact launched an ambitious and much-needed project to gather data on social media content moderation. Last week OnlineCensorship.org bore its first fruit with an in-depth report based on 161 user submissions.…