The Legacy of Judith Krug

Art: Balimore City Paper


The Baltimore City Paper has published a tribute to Judith Krug.

You may not know this librarian's name but in the US, she fought for free speech and the freedom to read. According to the article by Anna Ditkoff, Krug's mother found her young daughter reading a book about sex with a flashlight one night. Her mother reacted by asking her to turn on the light so she didn't hurt her eyes.

Krug adopted her parents' philosophy with her own children.

In 1967, she became the founding director of the ALA's (American Library Association)Office for Intellectual Freedom and two years later helped create the Freedom to Read Foundation, a group that provides funding for legal aid in First Amendment cases. In 1982, Krug founded Banned Books Week to promote awareness.
In 1996, she battled an attempt to censor the internet in libraries, taking the legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court. In 2001, Krug and other librarians led a vocal fight against the Patriot Act which endangered the privacy of patrons' library records.

She lost her fight to stomach cancer this past April at the age of 69.

China Denies Involvement in Attacks on Google

China has finally spoken out regarding the cyber attacks alleged to have originated in China, the BBC reported yesterday. China denies state involvement. An unnamed spokesperson from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China stated, "The accusation that the Chinese government participated in [any] cyber attack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless." He added, "China's policy on internet safety is transparent and consistent."

The US is being accused of hypocrisy since China believes "certain government agencies" illegally checked a massive number of personal e-mail accounts.


Cox and Forkum Political Cartoon

Google China Saga Continues

Illustration Bezinga.com

Google CEO Eric Schmidt remains committed to stay in China, according to statements made yesterday. As reported in a previous post, there was a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" on a number of high profile computer companies in China and Google threatened to pull out of China unless it could provide uncensored results. According to today's Telegraph, Schmidt has confirmed that that Google and China have been "in conversation." Schmidt added that they wish to remain in China but that they would like to be there "on somewhat different terms" than they have in the past. Although Google has continued to censor searches according to Chinese law, sources within Google said there are no plans to revoke their earlier stand on censorship. Stated Schmitd, "We continue to follow their laws, we continue to offer censored results. But in a reasonably short time from now we will be making some changes there."

PC World offers a timeline of the Google/China incident.

The Financial Post reports that Microsoft has released a patch for Explorer to secure the breach through which someone was able to target Google and other companies. Instead of releasing it on Tuesdays, as they have done with other patches, this patch was made available as soon as it was ready.

As expected, Google's presence in China and their threat to pull out continues to be addressed in the political arena. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made unrestricted Internet access a top foreign-policy priority and urged China to investigate cyber intrusions that led Google Inc. to threaten to pull out of that country, the Wall Street Journal reports which also reported on China's reaction to Clinton's statements.

It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds.

Public Interest Responsible Journalism May Lead to Greater Freedom of Speech

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that journalists who act responsibly in reporting stories that are in the public interest will be protected in libel lawsuits. The Globe and Mail reports that the media were "exultant" about the rulings. Bloggers and others publishing on the Internet will also be protected.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin handed down the 9-0 decisions, saying that Canada needs to keep in step with other Western democracies who have provided greater protection to the media and arguing that society is best served by fearless commentary and investigative journalism.

Freewheeling debate on matters of public interest is to be encouraged and the vital role of the communications media in providing a vehicle for such debate is explicitly recognized.

New trials have been ordered for the Toronto Star (Grant v. Torstar Corp.)which exposed a questionable land deal and the Ottawa Citizen (Cusson v. Quan) which raised questions about the conduct of a police officer who helped search for survivors after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York.

In the past, the burden of proof in a liable case fell to the defendant, making it difficult for the media to defend its position.

Terminal Man

Like something out of The Terminal (which was also based on a true story), Feng Zhenghu is a man stuck in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, likely because of a book he authored that criticized Chinese regulations against foreign company investment. In 2000, the author was sentenced to three years in a Chinese prison. He was also critical of the government's handling of the Tiananmen Square demonstration.

According to the Boston Globe, Feng sits on a bench in front of the Japanese customs booth, refusing to pass through customs because that would mean entering Japan. He has been turned away by Chinese officals eight times. Four of the eight times, he made it as far as Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport before being sent back to Tokyo.

Feng has had no access to food courts or hot showers but lately, with the help of Global Voices Online which publishes selected updates of the situation, he has been able to communicate with the global community through his phone and says that he has obtained enough food for the next month.

Some people say that I am battling for citizen's right to return back to China by myself, but I know that many Chinese people are behind me. When I was hungry and desperate, many Chinese from mainland China, Hong Kong and overseas delivered food to me. When I was cut from internet connection, some Internet experts from mainland China gave me technical support and help me to build a twitter account. Now I can use my mobile phone to update my status and let people from mainland China to know what's going on here.

A Music Video entitled Let Feng Zhenghu Return Home has been posted on YouTube.

Amy Goodman Detained at Canadian Border

Photo: Toronto Star

Amy Goodman, a US journalist who hosts "Democracy Now!" and New York Times best-selling author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier” was detained at a Vancouver border crossing last month. According to the CBC, border officials questioned her about what she would be speaking about in Vancouver and Victoria. The Globe and Mail reports that she was scheduled to speak at the public library.

Most disturbing is that border guards asked for her speaking notes. Since she does not use notes to speak, she offered her copy of the book from which should would be reading. The question border guards kept asking was whether she would be speaking about the upcoming Vancouver Olympics. When she returned to her car, guards had gone through their belongings and papers and two of three laptops.

The event as described by Amy Goodman was posted on Truthdig.

Amy concludes:

Our detention and interrogation were not only a violation of freedom of the press but also a violation of the public’s right to know. Because if journalists feel there are things they can’t report on, that they’ll be detained, that they’ll be arrested or interrogated; this is a threat to the free flow of information. And that’s the public’s loss, an Olympic loss for democracy.

While many people have experienced being pulled over at the US/Canada border, the issue is seldom what a person will speak about. This issue should be of great concern to Canadians who value freedom of speech.

We Read Banned Books....and Other Stuff Too

The Intellectual Freedom Committee of the British Columbia Library Association publishes a blog called "We Read Banned Books...and Other Books Too."

This is a great resource which highlights Canadian and world issues. Entries include:
Best Library Display Ever,Heal this book: reversing vandalism among others. The latest entry Colors magazine issue on Freedom of Speech includes a link to the magazine Colors. The theme for this volume is Freedom of Speech and a number of articles look at this issue from the points of view of a number of countries.

Honest Belief and Free Speech

The Globe and Mail reports on a judgement made by the Supreme Court of Canada concerning free speech.

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Rafe Mair, a Vancouver radio broadcaster and WIC Radio Ltd. are not guilty of libel in a suit brought over comments denouncing Kari Simpson's book-banning stand. The court found that Mair did not defame Simpson, who claims to be an advocate of Christian values. Simpson's public support of the Surrey school board's banning of three book depicting same-sex parents was criticized by Mair in such a way that he compared her views to attitudes of Nazi Germany and the Ku Klux Klan. Mr. Mair said that Ms. Simpson's views on the book banning,

...took me back to my childhood, when with my parents, we would listen to bigots who with increasing shrillness would harangue the crowds. For Kari's 'homosexual,' one could easily substitute 'Jew.' I could see Governor Wallace - in my mind's eye I could see Governor Wallace of Alabama standing on the steps of a schoolhouse shouting to the crowds that no Negroes would get into Alabama schools as long as he was governor. It could have been blacks last Thursday night just as easily as gays.

The court set terms for what it determined was "honest belief" -- whether an honest person would hold the same belief or opinion. This frees the media from living in fear of a libel suit whenever provocative issues are raised. The legal test to determine "honest belief" includes:

• The comment must be on a matter of public interest.


• It must be based on fact.


• Although it can include inferences of fact, the comment must be recognizable as comment.


• It must be capable of satisfying the question: Could any person honestly express that opinion on the proved facts?

Judge Binnie commented,

We live in a free country, where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones. In much modern media, personalities such as Rafe Mair are as much entertainers as journalists.

Judge Binnie also made room for satirists and cartoonists who create caricatures of points of view. "Their function is not so much to advance public debate, as it is to exercise a democratic right to poke fun at those who huff and puff in the public arena. This is well understood by the public to be their function."

Read the full judgement.

Cuba and Freedom to Read

There isn't much to report on concerning Cuba's Freedom to Read from my personal experience there. I did learn that there is a great emphasis on education and literacy. Whether or not that translates into freedom to read or free thinking is best left with Freadom, an organization which stands up for Cuban librarians and others who have been jailed for supporting the freedom to read.

A quick visit to a public library in Havana revealed books in worn condition.

The Cuban International Book Fair is a celebration of literacy and many families take the time to visit. It is definitely a "must do," if in Cuba in February.

Surprising to me was the literacy campaign, which Castro initiated in 1961. It is reported that "eleven months later, 707,212 people had learned to read and had written letters to President Castro to prove it and say thank you." For more information visit a Photo report: Literacy and computer literacy in Cuba.

As a postscript, may I recommend a couple of authors for the "Banned Book Challenge?" Although Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in Columbia, he began to align himself with the Cuban revolution which reflected his Utopian politics. He spent time in Cuba and eventually became a person friend of Fidel Castro.


Ernest Hemmingway lived out his last days in Cuba. Visitors to Cuba will find a museum dedicated to his life and work and numerous drinking establishments that claim that Hemmingway drank there. Take a tour of Old Havana on Hemmingway's trail. He has been honoured by the people of Cuba who regard him as one of their own. Ironically, according to Study World's entry on Ernest Hemmingway, his father was a strict man who censored what his children could read.

PEN Mightier Than the Sword in China?

According to the Agence France-Presse, a global news agency, Chinese police have tried to disrupt an awards ceremony organized by PEN, an International Agency that advocates freedom of expression. Two writers have been detained by police as the Chinese government moves to keep control of dissent as the 2008 Beijing Olympics approach. According to a press release from PEN Canada, there are now 41 Chinese writers who have been wrongly imprisoned.

Li Jianhong, who was due to receive an award at the ceremony, is under house arrest. Liao Yiwu, who was to receive the Freedom to Write Award, was detained and was scheduled to be returned to his home. Many of the 40 people who had been invited to the ceremony received warnings from police not to attend.

Visit PEN Canada's Web Site for more information on PEN's campaign and other censorship issues.

In an unrelated story, the Washington Post highlights the story of Chen Yuhua, a Chinese resident who is suing the Beijing Municiple government over the removal of his Internet post about dogs. He has been careful to follow procedure exactly. His is a bold challenge to the atmosphere of the control of information. His post was an attack on regulations barring any dog over 14 inches high and restricting each family to only one dog. This is only the second time someone has gone to court to sue over censorship.

It is believed that more than 30,000 censors monitor the Internet using technology to block sensitive sites. A list of keywords used to filter Internet content in China was obtained by the Washington Post back in 2005. Of the 236 words, 18 are obscenities. The rest are related to politics or current affairs.

Blogging Anonymously

Global Voices Online offers technical instruction on how to blog anonymously. Please read their disclaimer before trying this for yourself, especially if you live in a country that frowns on free speech. It is not foolproof but offers a layer of protection.




An article on How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else) is offered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Muzzle Award

The 2007 Jefferson Muzzle Award was presented to a number of people and organizations in the US, including the Miami-Dade School Board for its banning of a children's book entitled "A Visit to Cuba" after a parent complained it showed the communist state in too positive a light.

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has awarded over one hundred and sixty Jefferson Muzzles in the past sixteen years. According to their web site:

Announced on or near April 13 — the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson — the Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment.

Here is the full 2007 Muzzle Award List:

1. REP. PETER KING, R-N.Y., for advocating a criminal investigation of The New York Times after it reported on government surveillance of international financial transactions.

2. THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, for broadening the scope of broadcast material that constitutes indecency and targeting profanity.

3. THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, for its surveillance of anti-war organizations.

4. THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, for changing and censoring reports and studies of government scientists.

5. THE OHIO GENERAL ASSEMBLY, for passing a bill requiring state employees to sign a form declaring one has no ties to terrorist groups and gives no financial or material assistance to groups on the State Department's terrorist list.

6. KENTUCKY REPUBLICAN GOV. ERNIE FLETCHER, for blocking access to liberal-leaning Web sites from state-owned computers, while still permitting access to conservative sites.

7. MAINE'S BUREAU OF LIQUOR ENFORCEMENT, for banning the sale of three beers because of label illustrations.

8. THE EAST ST. LOUIS (ILL.) CITY COUNCIL, for forcing a public access show supportive of an incumbent mayor's political opponent off the air.

9. THE PHILADELPHIA HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION, for filing a discrimination complaint against a cheese steak shop owner after he posted a bumper sticker at his business that stated, "This is America: When ordering 'Speak English.' "

10. THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, for its policy on school mascots and team logos.

11. THE CHARLES A. BEARD MEMORIAL SCHOOL BOARD IN KNIGHTSTOWN, IND., for expelling four students who created a video that featured evil stuffed animals' unsuccessful attempt to kill a teacher.

12. WATSON CHAPEL SCHOOL DISTRICT IN ARKANSAS, for suspending about 20 students who protested the district's dress code by wearing black armbands.

13. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD, for banning a children's book titled "A Visit to Cuba" after a parent complained it wasn't critical enough of the communist state.

14. TIE: BEN DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL IN INDIANAPOLIS, PRINCETON HIGH SCHOOL IN CINCINNATI AND WYOMING VALLEY WEST HIGH SCHOOL IN KINGSTON, PA., for censoring the content of high school publications.

Visit the archives for past years' Muzzle Award winners.

Muzzle, Stiffle, and Subvert: From the Bizarre to the Absurd

The Signal: News for Santa Clarita Valley has an opinion editorial that deals with a number of censorship issues in the US. The article by Willy E. Gutman is entitled "Only in America: From the Bizarre to the Absurd."

The author points out a number of situations which in his opinion reflect,

White House-led efforts to muzzle the press, stifle artistic expression and subvert free thought while stepping up its own deceitful propaganda is being daily turned up a notch with a series of seemingly isolated but intimately linked initiatives that reflect the Bush administration's obsession with controlling information - and the minds of Americans.

Included in his examples is the challenge to Fahrenheit 451 during "Banned Books Week" but the whole article is worth a read.

Do Americans Still Believe in the Principles of the U.S. Constitution?

ONE OF OUR [U.S.] GREAT WEAPONS CAN'T BE TAKEN LIGHTLY
By Mike Levine

Times Herald-Record
January 14, 2007

Wednesday, December 6, 1989 - In China, pro-democracy students are secretly quoting Jefferson. Lech Walesa said Poles look to Lincoln's writings for inspiration. The freedom movements in Czechoslovakia and East Germany are among the century's great stories.

Liberty is suddenly the worldwide rage.

But is freedom still an American passion? We fly the flag, all right, and in our last presidential election, the Pledge of Allegiance was a big issue. Yet surveys suggest that if the Bill of Rights were voted on today, Americans would turn it down. We're said to have grown intolerant and jaded.

To find out if the principles of freedom are as alive in the mid-Hudson as in East Berlin, I wrote up a ``limits of freedom'' opinion survey and passed it out to 24 seniors at Middletown High School. I also gave the survey to two dozen mid-Hudson adults.

You might want to take it yourself. Remember, this is not a ``right or wrong'' test, but an opinion survey.

1) Freedom of speech should NOT be permitted if it: - damages the credibility of the government.

Agree . . . Disagree

- promotes beliefs that go against religious teachings.

Agree . . . Disagree

- ridicules the president.

Agree . . . Disagree

- voices opposition to any portion of the U.S. Constitution.

Agree . . . Disagree

- defends the burning of the American flag.

Agree . . . Disagree

- only presents one side of an issue.

Agree . . . Disagree

- denies the existence of God.

Agree . . . Disagree

2) If a law enforcement officer suspects someone of a crime, he should be able to arrest that person until evidence is gathered.

Agree . . . Disagree

3) If a person has evidence that would incriminate him in a crime, he should be required to confess.

Agree . . . Disagree

4) Those demonstrating in the streets against official government policy should be arrested.

Agree . . . Disagree

5) If a majority of Americans believe a book is unfair to our nation's reputation, it should be banned.

Agree . . . Disagree

6) Because a majority of Americans are Christian, it should be the official religion of the United States.

Agree . . . Disagree

7) Police should be able to arrest people who they believe are likely to commit crimes.

Agree . . . Disagree

In this questionnaire, each ``agree'' answer was a vote to eliminate freedoms already guaranteed in the Constitution. A ``disagree'' answer was a vote to sustain our Constitutional freedoms.

For libertarians, the good news is that both the high school seniors and the adults voted to keep virtually every freedom (both groups had similar results).

The bad news is a little more than half the respondents rejected the 5th Amendment to the Constitution (Question #3). They said a person should be made to incriminate himself.

More than Over a third of the students said a book that unfairly portrays America should be banned. More than Over a quarter of the respondents said opinions should be stifled that deny the existence of God or that poke fun at the president.

Ironically, a third of the people also said speaking out against any portion of the Constitution should be banned.

There's no intent to lecture here. Patriotic Americans disagree as to the limits of freedom.

But when the Cold War was won, it turned out that America's great weapon wasn't guns or bombs.

It was freedom itself.

Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate

For anyone who lives within driving distance to Toronto, the Hart House Debating Club at the University of Toronto is holding a debate on Freedom of Speech on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. The topic is "Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate." Following the debate guest speaker Christopher Hitchens will address this issue.

The debating team's web site introduces the topic as follows,

The controversy arising from the Danish Mohammed cartoons has been only one instance of a recent rise in concern over freedom of speech and hate speech in the western world. Our debaters and guest speaker will discuss whether or not speech can be banned on the grounds of hate.