More bad news out of Singapore: in the wake of a ban on three children’s books featuring same-sex parents from the city-state’s libraries, today we learned that the government has also barred booksellers from importing Archie: The Married Life vol.…
Category: International
Tango, Two Other Books Banned From Singapore Libraries
Last week Singapore’s National Library Board, a government agency that oversees public libraries in the city-state, announced that all copies of three children’s books that mention same-sex adoptive parents have been removed from library collections and will be destroyed. One…
Militants Call for Death of The 99 Creator
Last week the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the militant group better known as ISIS, took a brief timeout from overtaking cities in Iraq to call for the death of Kuwaiti-American comic creator Naif Al-Mutawa. They claimed on Twitter…
Lost Girls Rated 18+ by New Zealand Government Censors
Almost a year ago, Auckland City Libraries in New Zealand declined to add Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls to their collection, fearing prosecution under the country’s child pornography laws. The book was subsequently submitted for review by the…
New Manga Crushed by Tokyo Ordinance
A new manga series was cancelled last week just days before it was to debut online, apparently because the publisher was concerned it might clash with Tokyo’s Youth Healthy Development Ordinance. Creator Arisa Yamamoto said on her blog that editors…
Pakistani Political Cartoonist Mourns Free Expression
Pakistani political cartoonist Sabir Nazar is lucky. He’s currently in Washington, DC for a six-month fellowship at the National Endowment for Democracy, just as extremist attacks against journalists are ramping up in his home country. A few days ago he…
CNN Spectacularly Fails To Understand Manga and Anime
As Japan prepares to implement a new law which bans the possession of child pornography but exempts manga and anime, CNN released an over-the-top sensationalist video report this week that demonstrates a profound lack of knowledge about the formats. Much…
What Does Japan’s New Child Porn Law Mean for Manga and Anime?
Although production and distribution of underage pornography have been illegal in Japan for (only) 15 years, possession of it currently is not. That will change later this month, when a law passed last week by the country’s House of Representatives…
Middle Eastern Online Bookseller Puts Spotlight on Banned Books
Hoping to overwhelm censors, the founder of Middle Eastern online bookstore Jamalon announced last week that the site will launch a section devoted to books that have been banned in any of the 22 countries it serves. This is not…
Political Cartoons for Peace
A globalization class at Lebanese American University hosted political cartoonist Hassan Bleibel as he paid a visit to illustrate the power of using art to tackle sensitive issues. The cartoonist is best known for his work at the Daily Star…