Thailand doesn’t skimp when it comes to censorship. According to a recent article by Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku, the country’s scrupulous censorship laws commonly disrupt the dubbed anime that is broadcast on Thai television. Whatever is deemed inappropriate — be…
Fans Accuse Warner Brothers of Censorship Over Tom & Jerry Episodes
A new collection of Tom & Jerry cartoons has fans in an uproar over the exclusion of two episodes that Warner Brothers felt were “inappropriate” due to racially insensitive content. Fans are calling the move censorship. At issue are the…
Author Responds to Attempts to Ban The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Recently, two attempts have been made to remove Stephen Chbosky’s acclaimed The Perks of Being a Wallflower from schools. This is nothing new for the novel, which has made ALA’s most challenged books list several…
Syria Continues Campaign Against Dissenting Artists
A cartoonist who co-signed a 2011 document calling for the removal of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad and his government was arrested in late July, one more in an ongoing string of arrests, harassment, and disappearances of dissenting Syrian cartoonists. Cartoonists…
Join CBLDF in the Windy City for Wizard World Chicago!
While CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein is headed to Japan, CBLDF Deputy Director Alex Cox is headed a bit closer to home this weekend: Wizard World Chicago Comic Con! You’ll find CBLDF at…
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein to Visit Tokyo for Manga Freedom Speaking Tour
This weekend, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein will literally travel to the other side of the world — to Tokyo, Japan — for a series of lectures and meetings on manga and free expression, hosted by …
Obscenity Case Files: Memoirs v. Massachusetts
In 1966, eleven years after the decision in Roth v. United States held that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment and attempted to define obscene speech, came the landmark case of Memoirs v. Massachusetts. This case is about…
CBLDF Joins Amicus Brief Opposing Content-Based Taxation in New York
CBLDF and other members of the Media Coalition have joined forces to file an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, asking them to review a lower court’s decision in New Loudon Corp. v. State of N.Y. Tax…
HarperCollins India and the Pixelated Penises
When Canadian comics artist Chester Brown’s graphic novel memoir Paying For It — about his encounters with 23 different prostitutes — was first published in 2011, it received generally favorable reviews and was widely applauded for its honesty. But in…
CBLDF Joins Defense of The Bluest Eye and Speak
This week, CBLDF-sponsored Kids’ Right to Read Project sent two letters on behalf of challenged books: One defends the use of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in schools in Colorado, and the second defends Laurie Halse…
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Removed From Queens Reading List
Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which CBLDF has defended from challenges in the past, was apparently removed from a sixth-grade reading list in Queens, New York, earlier…
Stokoe, Roy, and Graham Deliver the Goods!
From the Great White North, hidden deep within the mysterious world of our northern neighbor Canada, three outstanding artists recently took time to sketch some bookplates for CBLDF, and the results were spectacular….
Singapore’s State Prosecutor Drops Sedition Charges Against Cartoonist
Sedition charges against Singapore cartoonist Leslie Chew, have been dropped. Back in May, we reported that Chew had been arrested for alleged racial insensitivity and sedition as a result of a complaint about one of his Facebook comic strips called…
Using Graphic Novels in Education: American Born Chinese
Welcome to Using Graphic Novels in Education, an ongoing feature from CBLDF that is designed to allay confusion around the content of banned books and to help parents and teachers raise readers. In this column, we examine books that have been…
Jennifer L. Holm and Meryl Jaffe on RAISING A READER
During SDCC, CBLDF Board Member Jennifer L. Holm (Babymouse) and Raising a Reader writer Meryl Jaffe sat down with GeekRoom’s Tom Misuraca to talk about CBLDF’s new resource and how comics can be used…