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Bookstores,
Libraries Celebrate Banned Books Week
 Bookstores and libraries across the
country celebrated Banned Books Week, the only national celebration of
the freedom to read, from Sept. 27 to Oct. 4. Over 150 booksellers
and librarians submitted information to the Banned Books Week Web site
launched by ABFFE and the American Library Association (ALA),
www.bannedbooksweek.org,
about the displays and events they organized for the 27th annual event.
The new Web site gave increased attention to the displays and events
that booksellers, librarians and others organized to celebrate Banned
Books Week and provided information to the public about book censorship
and ways to support free expression.
To kick off the
celebration, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual
Freedom, the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, and the Chicago Tribune
hosted a Banned Books Week Read-Out in Chicago. The event featured
popular banned and challenged authors and local Chicago celebrities.
Click here to view video clips from the Read-Out.
 Booksellers and
librarians organized creative displays and events to celebrate Banned
Books Week in their communities. Title Wave Books in Anchorage invited students from Steller Secondary School in Anchorage to
read aloud from previously banned and challenged books. Nightbird
Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas, assembled a display of banned books
(shown at right) and
invited customers who made a donation to ABFFE to pose for a photo with
their favorite titles. The
King's English in Salt Lake City placed "Banned" labels on books in a
Banned Books Week display (shown above) and posted printouts of the
First Amendment. Reflecting efforts to "go green" and promote
First Amendment rights at the same time, the staff at Skylight Books in
Los Angeles recycled packing materials to create a Banned Books "mummy"
wrapped in the names of frequently banned or challenged titles; as Halloween
approaches, the mummy still haunts the store window, reminding customers
of the spooky continuing threat of book censorship.
ABFFE Urges Booksellers to Participate in Banned Books Week Survey
ABFFE is asking
booksellers and librarians to complete a short survey about Banned Books
Week activities and information. The survey is only ten questions and
takes a few minutes to complete. The responses from the survey will
help ABFFE and the sponsors of Banned Books Week to improve the
resources available for the event, including the new Banned Books Week
Web site,
www.bannedbooksweek.org. Click
here to complete the survey.
Donald Trump Loses Effort to Reveal
Confidential Sources
A New
Jersey appeals court ruled on Friday that Donald Trump cannot force the
author of a book to reveal the names of people who told him that Trump
is not a billionaire. In his 2005 book, TrumpNation (Time Warner
Books), New York Times reporter Timothy O’Brien wrote that three
people in a position to know had told him that Trump’s net worth was
between $150 million and $250 million. Trump filed a libel suit and
demanded that O’Brien reveal the names of the three. O’Brien argued he
had a right to protect the confidentiality of his sources under the New
York reporters’ “shield” law.
A
lower court judge alarmed free speech and media organizations by ruling
that books are not covered by the shield law. Even if books are
covered, the judge said, TrumpNation would not qualify because
its occasionally facetious tone made it a work of “entertainment,” not
news. When O’Brien appealed, ABFFE joined the Association of American
Publishers and many of the country’s leading news organizations in
filing an amicus brief supporting him.
In the
decision announced on Friday, the Appellate Division of the Superior
Court of New Jersey declared that the shield law protects the
dissemination of information in any form, including books, and without
regard to the tone adopted by the author. It is unclear whether Trump
will appeal this decision to the New Jersey Supreme Court. He professed
himself to be pleased with the appeals court decision. “We’re happy
about the way it worked out,” he told the Law Blog. He also said that
he is looking forward to the trial.
BORDC Releases Graphic Summary of Civil Liberties Threats
In the days following the 9/11 attacks, civil liberties groups found it
difficult to get attention for their fears about the Patriot Act and
other acts of the federal government. However, a new organization,
the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC), began to introduce
resolutions at the local level expressing opposition to laws that
threaten civil liberties. When resolutions passed in Ann Arbor,
Denver and several Massachusetts towns, they demonstrated that civil
libertarians were not alone in their fears, and politicians began to
take notice. Ultimately, more than 400 local governments and eight
states would pass resolutions.
Based in Northampton, Massachusetts, BORDC remains one of the most
important groups in the fight against abuses by the federal government.
It has just published The "War on Terror" and the Constitution, a
very useful 22-page report that provides a summary of concerns raised by
the national security laws, including Section 215 of the Patriot Act,
which continues to threaten the confidentiality of bookstore and library
records. Each chapter focuses on a particular section of the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights and is presented in a graphically
attractive format that makes it easy to identify specific legal
provisions and how they affect our rights.
The report can be downloaded for free from
www.bordc.org. Printed copies
are $3. Volume discounts are available.
Free Speech Groups Urge Congress to Ban "Libel Tourism"
On September 10,
ABFFE and 18 groups issued a statement urging Congress to protect
American writers and publishers from the growing threat posed by libel
suits that are filed in foreign countries in an effort to intimidate
them. The lawsuits are filed in countries that offer less protection
for criticism than the United States and where the burden of proof rests
with the defendant to prove the truth of any allegedly libelous
statement. Defendants in these
cases sometimes have to defend their books in countries where they have
never been published. The practice of filing foreign libel cases
against Americans has been denounced as "libel tourism."
The statement, which
was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, calls for passage of the
Free Speech Protection Act of 2008 (S. 2977). Modeled on a New York
law, S. 2977 provides that foreign libel judgments cannot be enforced in
the United States if the speech is not actionable under U.S. law. S.
2977 also authorizes U.S. authors to countersue the foreign plaintiffs
in a U.S. court for damages of up to three times the amount of the
foreign judgment if the foreign plaintiff acted to suppress their
speech.
Click
here to read the statement.
ABFFE Offers Teachers Support in Censorship Battles
ABFFE's
support for teachers who confront efforts to censor books is highlighted
in an article in the new RHI Magazine, a publication for educators
issued by Random House. The magazine focuses on censorship and banned books
and features
articles from prominent free speech advocates and educators. ABFFE
President Chris Finan's article, "Your Bookseller: A Friend of
Free Speech," describes the crucial role booksellers play in
supporting free speech in their communities.
Click
here to read the article.
To request a free copy of
the magazine, contact Rebecca Zeidel,
(212) 587-4025 ext. 13;
rebecca@abffe.com.
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The ABFFE Book of the
Month for October is Rights in the Balance: Free Press, Fair
Trial, and Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart by Mark R. Scherer
(Texas Tech University Press), 978-0896726260. On a
horrific night in October 1975, Erwin Simants brutally murdered six
members of the Henry Kellie family in tiny Sutherland, Nebraska. Massive
media attention to the grisly story soon spawned a historic collision
between two of the most cherished
 American
constitutional protections—the First Amendment’s guarantee
of a free press and the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a criminal
defendant’s right to a fair trial before an impartial jury.
Rights in the Balance
is the story of the
complex legal battles set in motion that tragic night on the western
Nebraska plains. In juxtaposition to the criminal prosecution of Erwin
Simants, Mark Scherer traces the Nebraska Press Association’s battle to
overturn a gag order imposed on the media by state court judges.
Prohibited from publishing certain details about the crimes and the
Simants prosecution, the association set its own arduous legal course
that would lead ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court and the landmark
ruling issued in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart. The
decision, one of the most closely followed in American constitutional
history, remains one of the high court’s most significant statements and
controlling precedents on the troublesome and recurring conflict between
the rights of free press and fair trial.
Click here to read an interview with author Mark
Scherer.
To read about recent ABFFE Book of the Month selections, click
here
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Show Your Support for Freadom!
ABFFE's
popular “freadom” t-shirts, buttons, bookmarks, bumper
stickers, and more are available during Banned Books Week and all year round. To
order online, visit the ABFFE store.
For further information,
contact Rebecca Zeidel, (212) 587-4025, ext. 13;
rebecca@abffe.com.
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