Hello faithful readers. As you may have noticed, the site was in various states of disarray for the last month. This was due to a hosting issue that has now been resolved. The site has now been restored, save for the original publish dates of the articles in our RSS feed.

We will continue to bring you the latest news about censorship in writing and will hopefully have the first episode of the Freedom Readers podcast in early 2008.

Keep those pages turning!

-Michael Martinez-Mann

Project Censored, a media watchdog group, has released its list of the top 25 most censored stories in the US from 2006-2007. Among them are the death of habeas corpus, the moves made towards martial law, massacres in Haiti, and genetic transmission of toxic exposures to name a few.

For the full list and details you can visit the project censored website at http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2008/index.htm

A new season begins for the reader advocates at the Book-It Repository Theater. Now in it’s 18th season this legion of literature is bringing humanities greatest works to the stage and inspiring new readers. “We are really excited about next seasons line-up” said co-founding directors Jane Jones and Myra Platt in a press release. “Titles for the new season include Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, Persuasion by Jane Austin, and The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch.”

Also included in their Touring Stories is Danger: Books!, a series of excerpts from banned and challenged books. The most controversial sections of the books are performed for the audience, followed by a discussion on the first amendment and book banning. For more information about Book-It you can go to The Book-It Homepage.

In response to warnings in early 2004 that radical Islam was making it’s way into the US penal system, the Federal Bureau of Prisons began planning for the removal of library materials which they deemed ‘dangerous’ or ‘inciting violence’.

The purpose of the ban was to remove the threat of prisoners being recruited to radical fringe groups. Yet in the latest sweep, the Bureau produced a list of 150 books for each of the major religions which they deemed noncontroversial and began systematically removing all other religious materials from the prison library system.

Included in the ‘dangerous materials’ removed from New Yorks’ Otisville Prison were 75% of Jewish works, some dated as early as the twelfth century. Though the ban purports to be a defense against radicalism, the list has weeded out non-islamic religious texts with a liberal bent. Legal precedent allows the prisons broad discretion in these matters, needing only to show valid penological interest to proceed.