The ACLU Foundation of Southern California has filed a lawsuit against the county of San Bernardino for allegedly violating the free speech rights of a Rialto artist after pulling two of his paintings from public display “simply because some viewers had complained about the paintings,” according to a statement from …

Newsletter from Article 19, published on article19.org on 14 November 2013: Art, in any form, constitutes a key medium through which information and ideas are imparted and received. Artist Alert, launched by ARTICLE 19 in 2008, highlights cases of artists around the world whose right to freedom of expression has …

The song “Kick een she back door” by the Antiguan band Burning Flames says a man should rape a woman. But does that mean the song should be banned?, a Trinidad Express columnist asks. Whatever the case, a petition has been circulated internationally which led to the song being dropped …

Launched on 18 November 2013, the weekly series ‘Rebel Music’ on MTV’s collage-channel in the United States, mtvU, documents youth uprising and the power of music and art to ignite change in conflict areas around the world. “Revolution has a sound. Meet a new generation of fearless youth igniting change …

Singer Kacey Musgraves’ voice went silent for a couple of seconds during the 2013 CMA Awards on 6 November 2013. The singer was censored three times during her performance of ‘Follow Your Arrow.’ Musgraves’ song includes the lyric “roll up a joint” and the network took the time to censor the word “joint.” …

Activists on social networks convoked a “tweet-protest” on 1 November 2013, in solidarity with Cuban dissident rapper and political prisoner Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga, known best as “El Critico” form the hip-hop duo The Unwanted Children (Los Hijos Que Nadie Quiso). The musician was violently arrested by the political police …

The superintendent at Bordentown Regional School District in New Jersey, USA, was reported by Charisma News to have “banned any and all religious music in the December concerts the district’s elementary schools normally hold”. According to Charisma News, the superintendent at Bordentown Regional School District made a public statement that …

Newsletter from Article 19, published on article19.org on 21 October 2013: Art, in any form, constitutes a key medium through which information and ideas are imparted and received. Artist Alert, launched by ARTICLE 19 in 2008, highlights cases of artists around the world whose right to freedom of expression has …

In an apparent bow to the right in the Jewish culture wars, Theater J, a celebrated theatrical group housed at Washington’s DC Jewish Community Center, will not produce a play that has been denounced by critics as ‘anti-Israel’. “A small yet vocal group seems to be holding the artistic and …

11,300 books have been challenged since 1982, when the event Banned Books Week was launched in the United States and started counting. The Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals. In the …