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Academy School District 20 leaders removed a "young adult" book from a middle school library in an act of censorship or diligence, depending on whom you ask.

An appeal to lift the ban on "Perfect Chemistry," by Simone Elkeles, from the library at Challenger Middle School was denied, setting a dangerous precedent, said James LaRue, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, a unit of the Chicago-based American Library Association.

"It's not as if anybody was being forced to read the book," he said. "Let's not be so afraid about what's going on in the world that we discourage our children from reading."

D-20 board members said the issue is not one of freedom of speech, but rather doing their job to not expose young students to unsuitable adult topics.

Board members unanimously agreed at a July 20 meeting to uphold a superintendent designee's ruling that the book is "not age-appropriate for a middle school audience because of pervasive descriptions of graphic sexual encounters, drug/alcohol use, violence and use of profanity."

"This book should have never made it to the shelves of a middle school," said D-20 board member Larry Borland. "This is not about censorship; it's about a school system making a reasonable policy decision that the language, sexual content and violence in the book are inappropriate for children who are 11, 12 or 13."

A book review committee of professionals and parents from Challenger unanimously disagreed and appealed the decision. The superintendent's designee, Jim Smith, assistant superintendent for administrative services, initially agreed with the committee but later reversed that decision.

The group submitted a 92-page appeal to the board. The author also wrote a letter in defense of the book.

"This is a bigger issue than just one book," Challenger Middle School librarian Gina Schaarschmidt told the board.

"Librarians are required to provide materials for all students. A middle school has a wide range of maturing levels, and we must honor all of them."

Books deemed "young adult" have stickers indicating they are for eighth-graders or students 14 and older.

A parent of a sixth-grader had complained about bad language and sexual references in "Perfect Chemistry," described as a cross between Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," the musical "West Side Story" and the movie "Grease."

The student, who was officially not old enough to obtain the book from school, had taken it and hid it from her mother, who found it under her pillow.

"Some of our students are ready for controversial content," said librarian Schaarschmidt. "They also know they should talk to their parents about the books. Different families have different sensitivities to controversial topics. Let parents choose for their own families."

The book has not been prohibited from high school libraries in D-20, the region's second-largest public school district with about 26,000 students.

The story, set in Chicago, depicts the relationship between an affluent white girl and a Hispanic boy, who wants to have sex with her as part of a gang initiation. The two become friends, talk about problems in their lives and fall in love.

The book explores how people from different backgrounds come to understand one another, exposing students to diversity issues and critical thinking, LaRue said.

"Parents don't want to confront the truth that their children are growing up," LaRue said. "By removing this book, you don't remove the problems from society - you make it harder for people trying to deal with it and find information that could help them."

D-20 board members said they find the book offensive in various ways.

"This book is one giant clich, one negative stereotype after another, constant sex, drugs and alcohol use by teenagers, which implies everyone does it, a lot of profanity, and the protagonists repeatedly make poor choices and it's OK," said board member Linda Van Matre.

Board President Glenn Strebe counted the number of times certain profane words and sexual references, such as masturbation, appear in the book. He read the list aloud, prompting a warning of caution on the online video of the meeting.

"Typically, at the American Library Association, we say you have the right to say, 'This is what I want my child to read,'" LaRue said. "What gets worrisome in the public environment is to say, 'I don't want anyone else to read this either.' That's what you do when you remove a library book."

Two other library books at Challenger also have been questioned and pulled, Schaarschmidt said, and the parent who started the action has requested an inventory of all books in the school library.

To parents who criticize bad language and sexual references in teen books, LaRue responds: "Do they watch TV? Are we saying there is no sex and no swearing in public schools? When someone writes a book, they try to make it realistic. I always say it's safer to run across a problem in a book than it is to find out about it on the streets for the very first time."

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Book banning in Academy School District 20: Censorship or diligence? - Colorado Springs Gazette

2Pac vs. Biggie. Elizabeth I. vs. Mary, Queen of Scots. The Jets vs. The Sharks.

Add to the list: Jewish American playwright David Mamet vs. Jewish American playwright Paula Vogel. There will be blood. And there will also be strongly worded New York Times quotes.

How did the grudge between these two great households, both alike in dignity and Pulitzer prizes, begin?

It was discovered recently that David Mamet, known for clipped dialogue in works like Oleana, has instituted a clause through his licensing company which prohibits theaters producing his work from sponsoring post-show talks within 2 hours of performances. The penalty? A cool $25,000 fine. In other words, theaters would have to throw around a significant amount of their operating budgets to hear questions like, How did the actors memorize all those lines?

Mamets given reasoning is that he wanted the impact of his play not to be emotionally truncated by a structured discussion between the actors and their audience. This is not a surprising sentimentin my experience David Mamets plays, which range from blundersome to scorchingly brilliant, all give off a vibe of a creepy uncle who lives to monologue to young women. But is this prohibition censorship?

Yes, according to firebrand playwright and professor Paula Vogel, who would know, since she literally wrote the play on censorship. The acclaimed Indecent, a meditation on Jewish art, history, and censorship, which was resuscitated by enthusiastic audiences after poor ticket sales threatened its shuttering, is currently running on Broadway. Vogel told the New York Times that she enjoys talk backs for her own and others plays, and that they can range from painful to Dr. Ruth dancing in the aisles. Of Mamets ban she said:

The gauntlet, it seems, has been thrown. When will Mamet and Vogel meet for a gentlemens duel? When will we be privy to a Pulitzer-worthy rap battle? Is there any chance of a dance-off, or perhaps, a one-act-off?

As we wait for Mamet to respond to Vogels diss, we issue a challenge of our own: the theater that produces a David Mamet play, throws a two-hour-and-one-minute happy hour, and then opens the floor to a raucous, drunken talkback is the theater that may save the American arts establishment from itself.

If you are a theater with a plan like this, please call us. And more importantly, invite us.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny.

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'Indecent' Playwright Paula Vogel Calls David Mamet's Talkback Ban 'Censorship' - Forward

Over the past decade and half, the streets of Venezuela have become a battlefield for journalists. This year, the country came third-to-last in the2017 World Press Freedom Index, withindependent NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) naming Venezuelas situation difficult. The independent medias virtual blocking from official sources, and the active persecution practiced by Nicols Maduro and his government and Hugo Chvez before him against critical voices, are some of the biggest obstacles these professionals face.

The examples are many just read about Chilean-Venezuelan political prisoner (now on house arrest) Braulio Jatar, or New York Times reporter Nicholas Casey, who wasbanned from the country in October 2016.Reports abound of the countless arbitrary arrests and assaults suffered by reporters, camera crews, and photographers in the recent protests against Maduro and his constituent assembly referendum.

The shift in how information is shared in Venezuelas mass media can be traced back to Chvezs silencing of TV station RCTV 20 years ago. A large percentage of TV & radio stations and print publications are now government-owned, and only share what Venezuelans have come to know as the official version of events; the majority of the remaining private outlets recur to self-censorship in order to stay out of trouble.

This means Venezuelas citizens have practically just one place where they can find out whats going on in their own country: the Internet. And here too, there are obstacles. Venezuela has the slowest internet connection in Latin America, and a penetration of just 53% of which only 2% represent low-income communities. Right now, its becoming more and more common for opposition politicians to broadcast their press conferences on Periscope, for example, or to witness police enforcement excesses on Facebook Live transmissions.

In the context of these past 100+ days of protests, a group of journalism students from Montevila University, in Caracas, have stepped in to try and fight journalisms good fight. They turned their thesis into El Tambor a full-fledged independent online news medium, which uses tools like infographics, videos, photos, and animations targeted to millennial audiences. What began as a four person outfit is now a team of 45 young people based in Caracas and an Instagram account with over 70,000 followers with a passion and a sense of duty to keep their fellow Venezuelans informed.

Their special coverage of the almost-daily demonstrations that have been going on in Caracas has required them to remain on the frong lines, which means their reporters are often risking their lives in the middle of violent actions from police, military, and even paramilitary groups. Thats why El Tambor has started a crowdfunding campaign to acquire equipment to protect themselves in these situations, like gas masks, bulletproof vests, safety helmets, as well as additional technology to keep doing their job.

We spoke to Jorge Lander, co-founder of El Tambor, to learn about their experience as an independent news medium the social turmoil of todays Venezuela.

What are some of the obstacles journalists face today while doing their job in Venezuela? Every day when we go out to cover the demonstrations in Venezuela, we have to wear bulletproof vests, gas masks, safety helmets, and we have to identify all of our equipment with press tags to ID ourselves. Still, three of our reporters have been assaulted by both government police forces and by violent paramilitary groups looking to stop us from doing our job. Despite all these threats, we remain determined, informing our citizens and the rest of the world about whats going on, because thats our role as journalism students.

How has the experience been for the El Tambor members covering these ongoing 100+ days of protests? Going out to do coverage gives us mixed feelings and emotions. At one moment, youre photographing a protest full of chants and posters against the government, and minutes later you start seeing people badly hurt because of repression by police enforcement officers. We risk our lives doing our job because, with this censorship and lack of information, our society needs us. In spite all of this, seeing the final result seeing the debates generated by the news and knowing that our audience is thinking critically about what we post, makes us proud and gives us strength to go on.

In this particular moment, whats the importance of online media outlets like yours which inform about whats going on in Venezuela? In the middle of the censorship we experience in Venezuela, digital media has been fundamental for sharing whats going on here. Thats why the responsibility we assume as a medium is increasingly bigger; were committed to the country, and thats why all the information we post on our website and social media is rigorously confirmed. Weve witnessed how people are trusting online media more and more; theyre basically the only windows Venezuelans have to know whats going on in the country.

As journalism students, how do you see the future of your profession in a country like yours? We face Venezuelas situation with optimism. We believe deeply that there will be a positive change in our country, politically and socially speaking. Thats why we keep working with care, using the few resources we have at hand, and always fighting to overcome the obstacles. Because we know were responsible for building the future of our country; its in our hands to build tomorrows journalism. We firmly believe well be pioneers in communications here and, amidst the crisis, we see a space for learning and opportunities that will guide us to a bright future.

Donate here to support El Tambors crowdfunding efforts.

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Venezuelan Journalism Students Are Fighting Media Censorship. Here's How You Can Help - Remezcla (blog)

Photo courtesy of Jon King

History Professor Steven Levine is a specialist in East Asian affairs at the University of Montana. Fluent In Chinese, Levine was partly responsible for bringing the Confucius Institute to the state, a decision he now says was a mistake that has opened the door to Beijing soft power.

When I was at the Mansfield Center as Associate Director, I was partly responsible for bringing the Confucius Institute to the University of Montana, and, frankly, now I regret it because the Confucius institute, which is not particularly active actually at UM, is in fact an instrument of Chinese soft power.

Levine says the Confucius Institute offered money and language opportunities to the cash-strapped university, but he has come to be very critical of the educational structure of the institute.

The teachers are very carefully vetted to make sure that they dont differ one syllable from any of the official lines in Beijing, Levine said. As you get beyond the basic ABCs, so to speak, of Chinese, the books that are used and the teachers that are teaching them are forbidden by their contract from speaking about things like Tibet, for example, or Taiwan, or Liu Xiaobo, the Noble Prize winner that just died. They are constrained and censored basically.

Levine says it is unfortunate that Montanas education system cannot supply language teachers and funds to teach one of the worlds most important languages, rather than rely on Beijing.

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Professor Criticizes Beijing Censorship At University of Montana's 'Confucius Institute' - Newstalkkgvo

SEOUL

Despite North Koreas increased efforts to prevent outside information from entering the country, international activists say technology and market forces will eventually overcome state censorship.

North Korea is one of the most isolated nations in the world, where foreign media is prohibited and most people don't have access to the Internet. The repressive state has even executed citizens for distributing media from South Korea, according to the Transitional Justice Working Group that documents human rights abuses in North Korea.

Familiar pattern

Still it is following a pattern similar to other authoritarian regimes that view knowledge as power and have tried to limit and control access to outside information. This according to leaders from Cuban and Myanmar (or Burmese) independent organizations working to evade authoritarian censorship and outside information restrictions in their own countries, who were recently in Seoul to share their experiences and strategies with Korean counterparts.

I believe that the increasing Internet penetration is going to be inevitable. Eventually the government will need this and needs this for its own development, said Rafeal Duval with the independent news organization Cubanet.

In Cuba, as in North Korea, growing demand for foreign movies and television dramas, not political news, has made smuggling in outside information an increasingly profitable venture.

Using a variety of USB drives, Micro SD cards and DVD discs, Cubanet distributes through the black market a weekly compilation of video content, audio podcasts and entire webpages known as El Paquete for its growing list of customers in Cuba.

Duval said Cuban authorities charged with preventing the influx of foreign media are eventually co-opted by being bought off and often becoming users themselves.

Theyre going to realize the impossibility of a ban because of corruption, he said.

Another Cuban project called Apretaste targeted the countrys elites, the estimated 25 percent of Cubans who have access to email. Apretaste works as a proxy search engine in which volunteers in places like Florida email results to over 100,000 Cuban inquiries each month.

Right now we are giving to the people in Cuba something that they really need. We are giving them a window to see you outside the island, said Salvi Pascual who founded Apretaste.

Prior to democratic reforms that began in Myanmar in 2011, the military government highly censored the Internet. But the porous border with Thailand and the proliferation of satellite TV receivers in the country made it easier for exile opposition groups to penetrate the countrys information blockade.

Emerging black market

The North Korean economy has been steadily growing in recent years despite increased international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for its continued nuclear and ballistic missiles tests. In the last year, the countrys gross domestic product rose 3.9 percent, driven in part by the exports of coal and other minerals, according to Bank of Korea in Seoul.

However an emerging private market that is tolerated but not sanctioned by the communist state is also driving economic growth. A survey by the Beyond Parallel project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC says most North Koreans now earn 75 percent of their household income from the black market. The Illicit export of North Korean seafood, shoes, cigarettes and cooking oil has given people new purchasing power to bring in outside information and technology.

The number of households with TVs and DVD players in North Korea has grown to the point of being ubiquitous said Nat Kretchun, Deputy Director of the Open Technology Fund, a group that promotes internet freedom and is funded by the U.S. government through the Voice of Americas sister organization Radio Free Asia.

And the number of legal North Korean cell phones users has also been growing in recent years. Initially many of these domestic phones were used to transfer unsanctioned media and information files but recent updates to the phones operating system installed inhibiting censorship and surveillance software.

It effectively blocks all unsanctioned files from being used on domestic phones, said Kretchun.

However for every measure taken by authoritarian governments to block outside information, activists are developing technological counter measures.

That said North Korean defector Kim Seung-chul, who founded North Korea Reform Radio, which broadcasts into the North, expressed frustration that the South Korean government seems to provide less funding to groups working to penetrate the Norths closed information environment than do these Cuban and Myanmar exiles groups.

The South Korean government, conservatives, veterans, and famous people have a lot of money but they do not use the money for this. They get angry about North Koreas situation, but they do not act, said Kim.

Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

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Cuban Activists Say North Korea Fighting Losing Censorship Battle - Voice of America