Long before video games and comic books became the targets of censors, Americans had to settle for censoring plain old books. “In the era before TV and movies completely overtook literature as the popular entertainment du jour… novels caused their…
The Ad Hoc Literature Committee in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho has issued a formal rejection of a teacher’s recommendations to include award-winning Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake in the district’s high school curriculum. Citing explicit sexual references and language, the committee,…
As a result of controversy surrounding Superintendent Joe Langowski’s knee-jerk decision to temporarily pull John Green’s Looking for Alaska from Lumberton Township, New Jersey, classrooms, the school board met to discuss the institution of some kind of rating system that…
Last week marked the 61st anniversary of the founding of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) and the implementation of the infamous series of rules, regulations, and guidelines that changed the entire face of the comic book industry. The Comics Code…
A Michigan school whose motto proudly declares “Preparing Students for the Changing World” has acted otherwise with the ban of the newest Captain Underpants novel from their recent book fair for its allusion to a gay character. The Arborwood Elementary…
On January 10, 2010, Sri Lankan cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared from his place of work under mysterious circumstances. His family and many others believe that he was abducted by the government in retaliation for voicing his dissent with the then…
It is a known fact that banning books doesn’t actually protect children, and censorship really does nothing more than highlight the fears of the adults who would have books pulled from schools and libraries. In a recent From the Square…
The Tokyo Bar Association issued a sexual orientation discrimination warning to the Tokyo Detention House earlier this week when it was found out that they had been explicitly refusing an inmate access to manga which depicts homosexual sex acts —…
In an interview with Dateline Irrawaddy, Burmese cartoonists Maung Maung Aung and Win Aung discuss the history of cartoons in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and what it means to be a cartoonist in the current media landscape. They also address the…
An award-winning coming of age novel is back on shelves throughout New Zealand after the country’s Office of Film & Literature Classification lifted its temporary ban. Into the River by New Zealand native author Ted Dawe was banned in his…