ABFFE UPDATE

January 18, 2008 Previously in ABFFE Update Volume 10, Number 1

ABFFE Seeks Bookstores for More Reporters' Talks

ABFFE is seeking bookstores to host reporters who want to speak about the growing effort to force journalists to reveal their confidential sources.  In 2006, ABFFE organized a series of bookstore programs to educate the public about the importance of confidential sources for a free press. “Seventeen bookstores hosted some of this country’s leading journalists and were very pleased with the results,” ABFFE President Chris Finan said.  “This year’s programs will occur against the background of the dramatic fight to pass a reporters’ shield law in Congress.”

Bookstores interested in hosting a reporter should contact ABFFE.  It will work with the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) Institute to identify a media lawyer in the area who will then find a reporter who has worked on major stories that could not have been reported without the use of confidential sources. The MLRC Institute, a not-for-profit educational organization focused on the media and the First Amendment, has received a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation to educate the public on this issue.

Booksellers who are interested in participating should contact Chris Finan, chris@abffe.com, (212) 587-4025, ext. 15.

Click here to read more about the reporters program.

Free Speech Groups Celebrate Victories in FL and WV; Oppose "Weeding Out" Libraries

ABFFE joined other free speech advocates in welcoming the decision by the Kanawha County, WV, School Board to return The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy to AP English classes at Nitro High School, following a favorable vote by a district review committee.  The book had been removed from classes after it was challenged by a few parents.  Another Pat Conroy novel, Beach Music, was also challenged and returned in December following a review.  ABFFE and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) sent a letter to the school board opposing the removals.  The board is still considering a policy for offering alternative assignments, which involves warning parents that certain books contain violence, “sexual content,” “profane language,” or “adult situations.”  ABFFE and five other groups issued a statement last month condemning the plan.  The policy is up for comment until January 25^th.

ABFFE and NCAC also hailed a review committee’s recent decision to keep Just Listen by Sarah Dessen in school libraries at Armwood High School in Tampa, FL.  Some parents had challenged the book because they objected to its sexual themes and language.  ABFFE and NCAC sent a letter to the Tampa Tribune and the Hillsborough County School Board opposing the challenge.  A review committee comprised of teachers, students, and parents voted unanimously to keep the book.  Click here to read the letter.

In Johnston County, NC, however, the fight against book censorship continues.  After parents objected to sexual themes in the book, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, a review committee recommended that the book be returned to school libraries and classrooms.  But a district committee disagreed, banning García Girls from schools throughout the district.  In addition, the school board proposed using lists of previously challenged books to “weed out” potentially offensive material in school libraries.  ABFFE, NCAC, and PEN American Center sent a letter to the school board condemning the decision about Garcia Girls and the policy.  Click here to read the letter.

ABFFE Book of the Month is "Freedom for the Thought That We Hate"

The ABFFE Book of the Month for January is Freedom for the Thought That We Hate by Anthony Lewis. 

Lewis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist, provides both a history of the growth of free speech and an analysis of its consequences for American politics and society.  Lewis showed an interest in civil liberties early in his career.  As a young reporter, he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories exposing the injustices of the federal loyalty program during the McCarthy period.  In 1957, he began covering the U.S. Supreme Court for the New York Times and six years later won a second Pulitzer for helping Americans grasp the significance of a series of Supreme Court decisions that dramatically expanded the scope of civil liberties.  He became a columnist for the Times in 1969 and frequently used his column to focus attention on abuses of civil liberties.  He retired in 2001 but continues to write for the Times, the New York Review of Books and other publications.

Lewis is the author of a bestseller, Gideon’s Trumpet, the story of the 1963 Supreme Court case that declared that indigent defendants have a constitutional right to legal representation.  It has sold more than one million copies.  He also published Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment, a history of a landmark free press case.

On January 14, ABFFE President Chris Finan moderated a discussion with Lewis at “An Evening with Anthony Lewis,” during the American Library Association’s (ALA) Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia, PA.  The event was sponsored by ALA, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the National Constitution Center.

To read an interview with Lewis, click here.

To read about recent ABFFE Book of the Month selections, click here.

Show Your Support for Freadom!

ABFFE's popular, newly-redesigned “freadom” t-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers are available during Banned Books Week and all year round.  To order online, visit the ABFFE store.