censorship

Indiana highschool teacher Connie Heermann has been suspended for teaching The Freedom Writers Diary, despite having written permission from 150 parents to let students read the book. Apparently a single board member objected to strong language in the text, and convinced the rest of the board to ban the book.

More glorious stupidity from those who should know better:

“An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.”

Tch, such irony.

For an event celebrating the written word, the Sydney Writers' Festival has been caught up in an embarrassing dispute over the alleged censorship of its official daily newspaper.

Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright says censorship never works, while voicing her conviction ahead of a first visit to China that words ultimately prevail over powers seeking to curb the freedom of expression.

Sitting on a platform in a small room in Kresge Hall Saturday, Weinberg senior Alex Robins attempted to recite from memory Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451." The book features a future totalitarian state in which books are banned. At the end of the novel, the protagonist joins a renegade group who memorize books as a form of resistance.

"A controversial gay-themed children's book which just weeks ago was unavailable at most local public libraries is now more widely accessible after a couple's attempt to have the book removed from the Lower Macungie Library backfired."

Not only are some bookstores refusing to carry the unauthorized Tom Cruise biography, but now publishers are refusing to print the book. “Pan Macmillan will not print a local edition of the book Tom Cruise, An Unauthorised Biography in Australia due to legal concerns, a move that has been labelled an act of censorship.”

“I'm too tired now. I have no energy to go on with literature in Iran.” Strict censorship and lengthy waits for approval from the Ministry of Culture, along with the threat of illegal imprisonment, have worn Iranian writers into a state of apathy. A country once known for its literature is today all but drained of literary life…a terrible, sad circumstance. And for what?

New PEN president Lisa Appignanesi urges the repeal of Britain’s antiquated law against blasphemous libel. “The government's current attempt, using the threat of prison, to determine what it is permissible to write or say, is misguided.” Might be a bit of a polite understatement.

Authors of books banned in the UK talk about why their books were an important contribution to the terrorism debate and why it’s a shame that British readers have been denied access to their work.

I have a real problem with this, especially when I read things like: “In some instances, the books were thrown into pulping machines so that all evidence of their existence was destroyed.”