Congress Addresses NSLs

The Patriot Act will expire at the end of 2009. Congress is studying several bills that would limit law enforcement in its efforts to access, warehouse, and collect digital records concerning the activities of private U. S. citizens.
Two representatives of Congress introduced on March 30 the National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009. This act if passed would limit an NSL to cases that the F. B. I. finds specific facts that the person they are investigating is a person who is part of a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. This bill would require court approval to prolong an NSL gag order beyond 30 days. It would also force the Justice Department to eliminate data if the NSL was obtained incorrectly. If someone were investigated when they should not have been, that person can sue whoever issued the NSL to a maximum of $50,000.
Library groups have been in opposition to NSLs to obtain patron records ever since the Patriot Act became a law in 2001. The Connecticut consortium Library Connection and the Internet Archive challenged the use of NSLs in court. The result was that the F. B. I. withdrew the NSL in both cases.
In February 2009 the U. S. House and Senate introduced a bill called the Internet Safety Act. This bill would require all Wi-Fi providers and end users, including libraries, to keep all records for two years concerning a user's identity when they are assigned a network address. This would assist law enforcers to identify who is viewing, uploading, and distributing child pornography. The American Library Association is not in favor of this bill.

References

"Congress Revisits NSLs, Digital Privacy." American Libraries 40 (5) (May 2009): 20.

Post 4 Eighth Grader Censored in School

An eighth grade girl was censored by her school before she had a chance to give her speech for her eighth grade commencement ceremony. This happened at Good Shepherd Regional Catholic School in Minersville, Pennsylvania. In part of her speech Spencer Nush said, "My great-great-great grandfather was one of the founding members that helped erect our beautiful school in 1923. That makes me the fourth generation that is still living, to graduate from this school, and it saddens me to say that I will be the last."
This version of her speech was censored by Principal Kimberly Fetter because Spencer Nush referred to some, but not all, of the former names for the school and the parishes associated with it. Principal Fetter said, "The speech mentioned St. Francis Church repeatedly, and this school was made possible by many, so she was asked to make her speech more inclusive to give honor to the many that made this school possible." The school is located in the St. Francis building and the school was formerly known as Holy Redeemer. Although Spencer Nush mentioned these two, other area parishes that made contributions to the school were not mentioned.
Laurie Nush, Spencer's mother, referred to the actions of the school as "censorship at its best." Principal Fetter responded by saying that she had the right to approve the speech since Spencer's speech represented the school.
This school is going to close at the end of the school year due to a lack of enrollment. It is unfortunate that the school is closing with a restriction on intellectual freedom.

References

Pangonis, Dustin. "Good Shepherd 8th - Grader's Parent Blasts School's "Censorship" of Daughter's Commencement Speech." McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington: 11 June 2009.

Post 3 Censorship in Thailand

In Thailand on April 12, 2009, the government put together a decree that gave officials power to censor news if it was perceived to be a threat to national security. After this took place, the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media rights group, asked that the government reverse this order of censorship.
On April 13th, the Thai government gave an order to block Station D (Democracy TV, DTV) which is a satellite news broadcaster. This station supports the anti-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (U.D.D.) protest group which is for the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who is in exile. This station had been having live broadcasts of protests by the U.D.D. in front of the Government House. The station had been providing video-link call-ins by Thaksin who had been urging his followers to rise up against the government as part of a "people's revolution."
A Minister at the Prime Minister's office explained to the local media that D Station's signal was cut because what it was broadcasting was "capable of causing chaos." This Minister ordered the local satellite service provider Thaicom to cut the signal for D Station.
Bob Dietz is the program director for the Committee to Protect Journalists in Asia. He said that, "Silencing media during political crises does a disservice to the Thai people.
It looks like the Thai government will continue to face protests concerning their efforts to censor the news. It could be a long struggle to regain a greater measure of intellectual freedom in Thailand.

References

"Media Rights Group Urges Thailand to Rescind Censorship Order." BBC 15 April 2009. Found in the LexisNexis Academic database.

Post 2 - Censorship Case Won

China has made some progress on intellectual freedom. After sixty years of Communist rule, they still have a long way to go on this issue. A Chinese professor won a suit against an internet company who had closed down his website. Hu Xingdou, a professor of economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, had posted articles on subjects that had included environmental issues and corruption. The professor expressed surprise that he had won this case since in the past courts did not take cases like this. And if courts took up similar cases, the person suing failed to win. The professor discovered that this was the first time that an internet user has won a suit against an internet service provider.
It was surprising that the media reported on this case widely before it went to court. The media reports brought about discussion among the Chinese people before the court case began. It also helped that an open-minded judge presided over the case. Overall, this case demonstrated that the Chinese legal system has made progress.
The Beijing New Web Digital Technology Company closed down Professor Hu's website in March claiming that there was illegal content on it. The professor moved his website to a different internet service provider.
The next thing that Professor Hu plans to do is to sue the authorities who ordered the internet service provider to take this action. However, the professor does not think that this case will make it to court. It would be a big step for Chinese intellectual freedom if this next case would make it to court and could be won.

References

Branigan, Tania. "Chinese Academic Wins Censorship Case." Irish Times 26 May 2009.

A Novel Challenged as Classroom Text

In the Lexis Nexis Academic database I found a news article from February 23, 2009 from the National Post in Canada. The title of the news article is "Atwood too Cruel for School?; Panel Approves Classic Tale, Final Decision to Come." This challenged book was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and this challenge came in the Toronto District School Board. A father made the complaint because his child in grade 12 was studying this novel in his high school class. This parent complained of its violence, sexual content, and religious themes.
This book tells the story of a society that is totalitarian. Women in this society have few rights and are subservient to men. These women are forced to have babies for couples who can not have children who are from a higher social class.
The parent did not realize that this story was providing a message of caution against this type of thing happening in the world. This is the first that this novel by Margaret Atwood has faced a challenge in a Canadian school. Fortunately, a review panel brought together by the Toronto District School Board decided that this book should be retained as a classroom text. The final decision is to be made by Gerry Connelly, the director of education for the board. By now this person has probably already made the decision to keep this novel as a classroom text. I certainly agree that this novel should have been kept as a classroom text.

References

Fitzpatrick, Meagan. "Atwood too Cruel for School?; Panel Approves Classic Tale, Final Decision to Come." National Post 23 February 2009.

Introduction

My name is Roger L. Barnes and I am a student in the School of Library and Information Science at I.U.P.U.I. in Indianapolis, Indiana. This class is the last class that I need to complete my Master of Library Science. The name of this class is S640 : Seminar in Intellectual Freedom.