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How anti-choice zealots cry censorship whenever they are challenged Media Matters for America Most recently, Lila Rose, founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action, appeared on the June 26 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight and claimed that Twitter was censoring Live Action's ads. Beyond alleging that Twitter was biased against the anti ...

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How anti-choice zealots cry censorship whenever they are challenged - Media Matters for America

Nosy Floridians now have another outlet for their moral outrage. Now anybody in the US state can formally complain about books used in public schools, and schools are required to hear them out.

Last week governor Rick Scott signed a bill that allows any Florida resident to formally challenge new or old materials, like books and movies, available in public schools. In drafting the bill, lawmakers specifically added language that expanded the complaint process to include anyone, not just parents.

Original law:

Each district school board must adopt a policy regarding a parents objection to his or her childs use of a specific instructional material, which clearly describes a process to handle all objections and provides for resolution.

New law, with new language highlighted:

Each district school board must adopt a policy regarding an a parents objection by a parent or a resident of the county to the his or her childs use of a specific instructional material, which clearly describes a process to handle all objections and provides for resolution.

The law also lays out specific guidelines on how schools should field complaints to materials used in class, included in school libraries, and placed on reading lists. Previously the law said that when schools wanted to add new materials, parents had to file a petition within 30 days of the introduction, and that schools had to list the petition on their site and hold a public forum about it. The new version of the law adds that the petition can be filed by anyone, not just a parent; that forums will be overseen by a formal hearing officer, who cant be an employee of the school district; and that schools now have 30 days to hold the forums, instead of seven.

It adds three reasons that material can be challenged:

The purported goal of the bill is to create more transparency around what Florida kids are learning in school. But it effectively institutionalizes censorship, with broad criteria like not suited to student needs. Critics fear that the new legislation constitutes a big step toward the suppression of information on evolution and climate change. And it can be used as a formal process to keep out classics and new works that Floridians think are inappropriate.

According to the office for intellectual freedom (OIF), a part of the American Library Association, the added red-tape will ultimately be used to pressure individual teachers into sticking with safe choices. The goal of this bill is to tie up educators with so much process and challenge and review that they give up on trying to teach contemporary authors on difficult subjects, says OIF director James LaRue, And to intimidate anyone who crosses a political line.

He adds, This is not about education; its about politics.

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Censorship: A new law in Florida lets any resident try to ban books ... - Quartz

Courtesy: Cairokee

Egyptian band Cairokee has announced that four songs from its upcoming album have not been approved by Egypts Censorship Board. In a Sunday statement on its Facebook page, the band wrote that the album will not be commercially released in its full form given the boards decision.

The censored songs include lyrics about everyday life, our problems as young people, social media and what we see on TV our usual topics, said 33-year old frontman and songwriter Amir Eid, who doesnt think any of the content is particularly controversial. If anything, I feel, as a songwriter, that I didnt say everything I wanted to say.

It is a standard practice for the Censorship Board to review songs before commercial release, but Cairokee, whose rise to fame came as a result of their politically-inspired music, has not had songs blocked before.

Set for release on July 11, Nota Beida (A Drop of White) will be the five-member bands seventh album, following 2015s Nas W Nas. The title track was released as a single in May and has been viewed over 880,000 times on YouTube.

On Wednesday, days after a sold-out show on July 1 as part of Londons Shubbak Festival that featured teasers from the new album, Eid told a maa Masr that the band was not given an official reason for the Censorship Boards decision.

We dont know the real reason, he said. Its possible the album wont be released commercially at all. He added that the matter is currently being handled by the bands lawyers.

While the Censorship Board has objected to the use of certain words in the past, in this case they objected to the release of entire songs, Eid said.

One of the songs that was not approved by the board, which is titled Al-Keif (The High), tackles youth drug use. Ironically, Eid says, the band was contacted by the Social Solidarity Ministrys drug use prevention and treatment program, which asked if it could use the song in an upcoming media campaign.

We will continue with our initial plan and release the full album online, said Eid, cautioning that he did not want to overstate the issue. We have our own parallel world in which we operate. Our fans are all online, and thats that.

The good news is that well keep going, and our music will remain free, read the the bands Facebook statement. It will be available on the internet and on digital stores, with visuals for each song.

Although formed in 2009, Cairokee became widely known during the 2011 revolution, after it recorded the song Sout al-Horreya (The Voice of Freedom), which some protesters took up as an anthem. The song was subsequently picked up by radio stations and TV channels.

The band has since collaborated with prominent figures in the regions music industry, including Algerian singer Souad Massi and late Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm.

Its latest album includes a collaboration with vocalist Abel Rahman Rushdy, who is known for his sufi style of singing.

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Censorship Board bans songs from Cairokee's new album - Mada Masr

Frontier Myanmar

As online defamation cases grow, cartoonists face self-censorship and rejection Frontier Myanmar Cartoonists, who have long played an important role in Myanmar's society, say that an infamous defamation law is curbing their ability to do their job. By EI CHERRY AUNG | MYANMAR NOW. TERRORISM, armed conflict, drug trafficking and child soldiers.

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As online defamation cases grow, cartoonists face self-censorship and rejection - Frontier Myanmar

Japanese games developer discusses his own experience of being asked to remove 'boob slider' which made female characters' breasts get bigger

A JAPANESE game developer has spoken out to provide a rare insight into Nintendos alleged censorship of games deemed too raunchy or shocking for Western audiences.

Nintendo is famed for producing child-friendly video games, whilst publishers in Britain and the US focus on big, bloody affairs like Fallout and DOOM.

But some of the games it originally releases into the the Japanesemarket are very different from the ones which see the light of day in North America and the rest of the world.

Nintendo follows a strategy of localisation in which parts of games are re-written to make more sense to players outside of Japan.

Gamers are worried that this process could allow progressive and censorious social justice warriors (the name for a very vocal group of censorious activists) to dictate a games story and character designs, overriding its original creators intentions.

NowTetsuya Takahashi, CEO of the Japanese developer Monolith Soft, has revealed his own experience with Nintendos shadowy localisation division.

He was the executive director of Xenoblade Chronicles X, which originally featured a shocking depiction of a 13-year-old character Lin Lee wearing a bikini as well as a ridiculous boob slider that allowed players to choose the size of their characters breasts.

Both were removed from the game which was released in North America.

As a developer, I do feel like itd be ideal to be able to adjust the content so that its culturally acceptable, whether its in the US or in the EU, he told Kotaku.

For example, there was a discussion about the breast slider.

Jokingly, I said: well, would it help if we had a crotch slider for the male? Obviously it was a joke, but they responded obviously its not gonna work out. I do realise theres a cultural difference between what Japanese people think and what the rest of the world thinks.

In recent years, several of Nintendos products have come under heavy criticism from the gaming community for being badly localised for American audiences.

This process is led by a wing of Nintendo called Treehouse,which is alleged to have been involved in the censorship of popular video games like Fire Emblem: Fates, which saw significant chunks of the game alteredand in some casesremoved.

A petting minigame, where players could spend personal time with characters as they tap the screen with the stylus, was removed. But the romantic dialogue remained intact.

Another change involved the removal of a controversial scene social justice warriors claimed was support for gay conversion therapy.

It was intended as a lighthearted moment where a man-hating character perceives everyone around her as female after consuming a magic powder.

To nip potential controversies in the bud, Nintendo devised a new strategy to have its staff form professional relationships with Japanese developers to tell them how best to make their games and inform them of any content with cultural relevance.

Also speaking to Kotaku, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that the creators are always involved during localisation in this new strategy and explained how the process worked.

He said: In terms of what gets localised, theres a simple collection of words that we use to define how we think about this: its cultural relevance and understanding of the ratings and ratings implications.

Fils-Aime provided adding a few years onto a characters listed age as an example of such a change to avoid a mature rating, but didnt list any games in particular.

The significance of Nintendo of Americas localizers participating during development cant be overstated.

Gamers fear it means that progressive and censorious social justice warriors can now dictate a games story and character designs, overriding its original creators intentions.

Critics fear the rise of political correctness in the United States and especially among video game industry professionals mean such a collaboration will only lead to further censorship of Nintendos games.

And this time, gamers may not even know about it.

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Nintendo's alleged 'censorship' of games deemed too sexy or shocking for politically correct Western audiences revealed - The Sun