censorship

Latest Articles

The battle over internet piracy

Rhode Island's congresional delegation splits over the issue burning up the netroots
The Internet is angry. Perhaps you've heard.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 18, 2012

Don't read these books!!

Censored
The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union will host its annual Banned Books event on September 23 at 6 pm at the Providence Athenaeum.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 21, 2011

Will Kindles kill libraries?

In this corner: libraries struggling to bring in patrons. In the other: Kindles looking to expand their market. Will it be a bloodbath, or can they hug it out?
This week, OverDrive itself will host its own conference to help libraries deal with a massive onslaught of patrons clamoring to check out books on their Kindles. Can embattled public institutions handle such a drastic change?
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | July 27, 2011

More muzzles

Letters to the Boston editor, August 6, 2010
I question whether "soft censorship" is actually a form of literal censorship.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | August 04, 2010

Jackie Greene comes alive

Guitarist breaks from the Dead
It doesn't take much to prove that modern-day Americana owes more to the Grateful Dead than it ever wanted to admit — one listen to Wilco's two most recent albums ought to do the trick.
By BRETT MILANO | August 03, 2010

2010 Muzzle Awards on campus

Harvard and Yale once again lead the way . . . for academic censorship
Harvard and Yale universities felt the sting of the global economic collapse firsthand in 2009, as the endowments of these stalwart New England Ivy League members dropped by nearly a third. The schools didn’t fare much better in the free marketplace of ideas, either.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 30, 2010

The 13th Annual Muzzle Awards

A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
A year and a half into the Age of Obama, we are learning a lesson we should have figured out long ago — that repression, once in place, is rarely rolled back all the way, and that liberals no less than conservatives are reluctant to give up power.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 05, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Free speech for me, but not for thee

Freedom Watch
Last Thursday's Supreme Court opinion striking down corporate campaign advertising restrictions might as well have been divorce papers in the rocky marriage between the political left and the First Amendment.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | January 29, 2010

Critical Mass

Over the years, UMass Amherst has proven to be a reliable hotbed for political hypocrisy and squelching of free speech
If free speech is what gives value to the campus "marketplace of ideas," UMass Amherst would long ago have gone bankrupt.
By KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE | November 18, 2009

Courthouse bomber to speak about social change

Censorship averted
After it was initially canceled, a controversial talk by a radical activist will go on Thursday at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Ray Luc Levasseur, who grew up in Sanford, Maine, and became a radical in part due to his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, will talk on campus in connection with a symposium on “social change.”
By RICK WORMWOOD | November 11, 2009

Free speech again quashed at Harvard

RSVPeeved Dept.
It should come as no surprise to readers of “Freedom Watch” that yet another instance of political, intellectual, and academic censorship has sprung up at Harvard, the self-touted pinnacle of higher education.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | October 21, 2009

Free speechifying

Letters to the Boston editor, July 17, 2009
How can Dan Kennedy pick a list of people who trample freedom of expression without listing the mayor of Boston?
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 15, 2009

Muzzle Awards: Collegiate Division

New England campuses muzzle free speech
In a 1957 Supreme Court decision upholding the free-speech rights of university professors ( Sweezy v. New Hampshire ), Justice Felix Frankfurter quoted prominent South African scholars on the importance of academic freedom.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 10, 2009

The 12th Annual Muzzle Awards

A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England.
With the era of repression and secrecy fostered by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney finally over, this should be the best of times for freedom of expression, open government, and civil liberties. Yet change comes slowly.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 10, 2009

Sotomayor's mixed message on free speech

Freedom Watch
Minutes after President Barack Obama announced that he was nominating appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, battle lines were drawn on the pre-scripted questions of "post-racial" America.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 03, 2009

Censorship for Me, Penelope

Girl, Interrupted
Lisa Jahn-Clough's young-adult novel Me, Penelope is the subject of a recent dispute at Tavares Middle School in Orlando, Florida.
By ALEX IRVINE | March 04, 2009

Acid tongue

Politics and other mistakes
Watch your mouth.
By AL DIAMON | February 04, 2009

Speak no evil?

Why tightening up on anti-Obama speech is a bad idea
Anthony Lewis's free-speech credentials are impeccable: among other things, the former New York Times columnist is James Madison Visiting Professor of First Amendment Issues at Columbia University's Journalism School
By ADAM REILLY | January 14, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Menino's promise

Realizing his pledge of flexibility is the key to Boston's future success
Boston's political tribes checked their traditional hostilities at the door this week when they trooped into Faneuil Hall for the inauguration of Mayor Thomas Menino, who took the oath to serve an unprecedented fifth term.
By EDITORIAL | January 06, 2010

By | January 01, 0001