ABFFE UPDATE

October 28, 2008 Previously in ABFFE Update Volume 10, Number 10

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.

ABFFE Book of the Month for October is “Rights in the Balance”

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), 9780896726260. 

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.



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.