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Censorship is the
suppression of ideas and information that certain persons—individuals, groups
or government officials—find objectionable or dangerous. It is no more
complicated than someone saying, “Don’t let anyone read this book, or buy
that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it! ” Censors try to
use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and
appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors
pressure public institutions, like libraries, to suppress and remove from
public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous, so that no
one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own
minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone. Throughout history, books
have been challenged for many reasons, including political content, sexual
expression, or language offensive to some people’s racial, cultural, or
ethnic background, gender or sexuality, or political or religious beliefs.
Materials considered heretical, blasphemous, seditious, obscene or
inappropriate for children have often been censored. Since the dawn of
recorded human expression, people have been burned at the stake, forced to
drink poison, crucified, ostracized and vilified for what they wrote and
believed. In most instances, a
censor is a sincerely concerned individual who believes that censorship can
improve society, protect children, and restore what the censor sees as lost
moral values. But under the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution, each of us has the right to read, view, listen to, and
disseminate constitutionally protected ideas, even if a censor finds those
ideas offensive. |
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Challenged vs. Banned A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict
materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges
do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the
curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. A
challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or
school requesting that materials be removed because of content or
appropriateness. The positive message of Banned Books Week: Free People Read Freely is that due to the commitment of
librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most
materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection. http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.htm |
Banned vs. Challenged Books |
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ALA Intellectual Freedom at http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/intellectual.htm Intellectual
freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information
from all points of view without restriction.
It provides
for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides
of a question, cause or movement may be
explored. Top Ten Banned Authors: Alvin Schwartz Judy Blume
Robert Cormier J.K.
Rowling Michael Willhoite Katherine Paterson Stephen King Maya Angelou R.L. Stine John Steinbeck |
Intellectual Freedom |
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Kids
Speak Up for Free Speech at http://www.kidspeakonline.org/ Freedom to Read Statement
at http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement.htm Most Challenged Books of
2006 at |
Motives for Censorship ·
Family Values ·
Political Views ·
Religion ·
Disenfranchised Rights |
SOURCE: "Intellectual
Freedom and Censorship Q&A." American Library Association. 2006.
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/intellectualfreedomandcensorship.html
(Accessed 19 Nov, 2007)
Throughout
history, more and different kinds of people and groups of all persuasions than
you might first suppose, who, for all sorts of reasons, have attempted—and
continue to attempt—to suppress anything that conflicts with or anyone who
disagrees with their own beliefs.
In his book Free
Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly
Censor Each Other, Nat Hentoff writes that “the lust to suppress can come
from any direction.” He quotes Phil Kerby, a former editor of the Los
Angeles Times, as saying, “Censorship is the strongest drive in human
nature; sex is a weak second.”
Between
1990 and 2000, of the 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office
for Intellectual Freedom (see The
100 Most Frequently Challenged Books):
Other
reasons for challenges included “nudity” (317 challenges, up 20 since 1999),
“racism” (267 challenges, up 22 since 1999), “sex education” (224 challenges,
up 7 since 1999), and “anti-family” (202 challenges, up 9 since 1999).
The most frequently
challenged authors in 2005 were
Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, Chris Crutcher, Robie Harris, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Toni
Morrison, J. D. Salinger, Lois Lowry, Marilyn Reynolds, and Sonya Sones.
The most frequently
challenged authors in 2004 were Phyllis
Reynolds Naylor, Robert Cormier, Judy
Blume, Toni Morrison, Chris
Lynch, Barbara Park, Gary Paulsen, Dav Pilkey, Maurice Sendak, and Sonya Sones.
The most frequently
challenged authors in 2003 were Phyllis
Reynolds Naylor, J. K. Rowling, Robert Cormier, Judy Blume, Katherine Paterson, John Steinbeck, Walter Dean Myers,
Robie Harris, Stephen King, and
Louise Rennison.
The most frequently challenged
authors in 2002 were J.K. Rowling, Judy
Blume, Robert Cormier, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Stephen King, Lois Duncan, S.E. Hinton,
Alvin Schwartz, Maya Angelou, Roald
Dahl, and Toni Morrison.
The most frequently challenged
authors in 2001 were J. K. Rowling, Robert Cormier, John Steinbeck, Judy Blume, Maya Angelou, Robie Harris, Gary Paulsen, Walter Dean Myers, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and Bette
Greene.
The most frequently challenged
authors in 2000 were J.K. Rowling, Robert Cormier, Lois Duncan, Piers
Anthony, Walter Dean Myers, Phyllis
Reynolds Naylor, John Steinbeck, Maya
Angelou, Christopher Pike, Caroline Cooney, Alvin Schwartz, Lois Lowry,
Harry Allard, Paul Zindel, and Judy
Blume.
Source:
Challenged
and Banned Books
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.cfm