censorship
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Nous devons être plus que Charlie (We Need to Be More than Charlie)
The only true way to defend free speech is to exercise it—not just talk about it.
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Authors Stand with Charlie Hebdo
As the world continues to mourn the 12 dead in Wednesday’s terrorist attack on the controversial French magazine Charlie Hebdo, satirists, cartoonists, writers, and editors have come together with PEN America to stand against the attack and bolster the necessity of…
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The New York Times Uncensored
At Slate, Justin Peters argues that the New York Times’s policy on profanity is in desperate need of updating.
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This Filthy Stuff
The New Republic has re-published a 1930 interview with a government censor, and it provides an interesting look into the mindset of the man charged with keeping “pollution” out of the hands of “innocent” New Englanders: Why, sometimes it’s the…
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Banned Books Week: A Rumpus Roundup
Sunday marked the start of Banned Books Week, a celebration of freedom, and a recognition of the threat of censorship. Libraries around the US are hosting events. Books are banned for a variety of reasons, and by a variety of organizations.…
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Fire in a Blackout
In Egypt, as elsewhere, journalists are under fire.: Those who do not adhere to self-censorship are likely to face pressure from the state. Al-Masdar website features political news and is loosely affiliated to the recently banned secular activist group April 6 Movement.…
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Secret Locker Library Distributes Banned Books
A student at a Catholic high school has been running a secret library out of her locker distributing banned books to fellow students. The student, identified by online handle Nekochan, was incensed when The Catcher in the Rye appeared on…
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Flattened Librarian
In the story, a young girl, Nancy, mysteriously receives a single Christmas gift – the steamroller. She takes the gift out for a ride and flattens many things along the way, one of which was human, as I recall. I…
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It Starts With People
In Charlotte, North Carolina, a Heroes Con panel devoted to LGBT visibility in comics was hosted by Kate Leth, Bryan Pittard, Terry Moore, Eric Punzone, and Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. The sextet spoke on internal censorship, Internet trolls, and straddling…
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Do Writers Also Have to Be Protesters?
Pankaj Mishra has always been a politically outspoken writer, so when Mo Yan, who has defended the Chinese government’s censorship, won the Nobel Prize, Mishra was the last person anyone expected to defend him. But he did, asking, “Do we…
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When Banning a Book Is Good
Novelist Dennis Miller was participating in a panel discussion about censorship at Mansfield University’s campus library, when he joked that his book should be banned: “It has sex, violence, and adult language.” Library director Scott DiMarco’s response? Done and done.…
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Burma Nurtures Literary Tradition with International Festival
If Jon Nickell’s essay “Into the Tiger’s Lair” piqued your interest about Burma, you might be interested to know that the often isolated country with abundant censorship regulations just held its first international literary festival. With workshops and readings on…