An insightful and humorous look into the complex issues of censorship, Jamie LaRue's book is at times intellectually and emotionally challenging--like all of the best books should be. --R. Alan Brooks, Comics Creator and Professor, Professor of Graphic Narrative, Regis University In America today, more books are being banned than ever before. This censorship is part of a larger assault on such American institutions as schools, public libraries, and universities. In On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US, respected long-time public librarian James LaRue issues a balanced and reasonable call to action for all citizens. LaRue, who served as director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, highlights the dangers of book banning and censorship in our public and educational spaces. Synthesizing his more than twenty-five years of experience on the front lines of these issues, he takes the reader through attempts he encountered to remove or restrict access to ideas, while placing the debate in the greater context about the role of libraries and free expression in a democratic society. LaRue covers topics such as:

• The role of the library in American culture and community
• The consequences of cancel culture
• Seven things citizens can do to quell book banning and censorship attempts

By examining past efforts at censorship and their dangerous impacts, LaRue asks the reader to reflect on how those times are not so different from today. This book is essential reading for all those who believe in free expression, who support libraries, and who cherish the central freedoms that American democracy represents.

Highlighting the year's most significant independent journalism--including reports on toxic chemicals, climate disinformation, and union victories--Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2025 illuminates issues and raises voices that the establishment press have throttled.

State of the Free Press 2025 shows how independent journalism can promote civic engagement and reconnect people who have otherwise lost interest in sensational news that distracts and polarizes us.

Balancing critical analysis with optimistic vision, the book's diverse contributors champion press freedom and critical media literacy to hold the powerful accountable and promote a more just and inclusive society.

State of the Free Press 2025 is a joint production of The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.

Regardless of the political party you follow, there is always someone telling you what is considered right. You find yourself trusting everything these parties give you to read, hear, watch, or experience. After all, the individuals feeding this information are educated, meaning you are becoming educated, as well, right?

For twenty years, Lisa Ekman worked in Washington D.C. as a Democratic advocate and lobbyist, supporting and advancing the party's policy goals. It was not until the COVID-19 pandemic hit when her eyes were suddenly opened to her cult-like devotion to a party that was, in actuality, leading Americans down the slippery slope of tyranny.

The truths she uncovered are now revealed through Deprogramming Democrats and Un-educating the Elites in the hopes of helping others who have had similar awakenings and to help wake up others. The truths include her own dedication to the progressive cult she had been programmed to become a part of, how the progressive cult evolved, the tools used to cause that evolution, why those tools worked, and how to undo the programming that has led us to where we are.

We the people have the power to restore our constitutional republic to its original promise and restore our liberty and freedom. We need to unite and stop allowing those in power to divide us through fear and anger.

Lisa Ekman has a law degree from Georgetown University, a master's in social work from the University of Denver, and a bachelor's in communication and rhetoric from Northwestern University. During her two decades working in D.C., she worked for Democratic senators, a federal agency, government contractors, and non-profit organizations. She moved to Virginia in 2020 when she woke up and deprogrammed herself. She lives with her fiancé, their five dogs, and chickens on her farm where they grow organic fruits and vegetables.

The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made.--P. J. O'Rourke

Hailed as the first freedom, free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, we are experiencing a free speech recession.

In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders--from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Rāzī, to the anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells and modern-day digital activists--Mchangama reveals how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech, too, is a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all stripes.

Updated with a new epilogue addressing topics ranging from AI to campus protests, Free Speech demonstrates how much we have gained from this principle--and how much we stand to lose without it.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Updated with a new afterword

'Douglas Murray fights the good fight for freedom of speech ... A truthful look at today's most divisive issues' - Jordan B. Peterson

'An excellent take on the lunacy affecting much of the world today. Douglas is one of the bright lights that could lead us out of the darkness.' - Joe Rogan

Are we living through the great derangement of our times?

In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of 'woke' culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of 'wokeness', the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.

One of the few writers who dares to counter the prevailing view and question the dramatic changes in our society - from gender reassignment for children to the impact of transgender rights on women - Murray's penetrating book, now published with a new afterword taking account of the book's reception and responding to the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, clears a path of sanity through the fog of our modern predicament.

Voltaire's comment--I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it--is frequently quoted by defenders of free speech. Yet it is rare to find someone prepared to defend all freedom of speech, especially if the views expressed are obnoxious or obviously false. So where do we draw the line? How important is our right to freedom of speech? In this accessible and up-to-date Very Short Introduction, Nigel Warburton covers a wide range of controversial free-speech issues, from Holocaust denial and pornography to the status of modern copyright law. The book offers a concise guide to many of the vexing issues concerning our right to speak freely, including: Should a civilized society set limits on freedom of speech? How can we balance free speech with the sensitivities of religious and minority groups? How have digital technology and the Internet changed the debate?

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Noam Chomsky's backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy--one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. According to Chomsky, propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state, and the mass media is the primary vehicle for delivering propaganda in the United States. From an examination of how Woodrow Wilson's Creel Commission succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population, to Bush Sr.'s war on Iraq, Chomsky examines how the mass media and public relations industries have been used as propaganda to generate public support for going to war. Chomsky further touches on how the modern public relations industry has been influenced by Walter Lippmann's theory of spectator democracy, in which the public is seen as a bewildered herd that needs to be directed, not empowered; and how the public relations industry in the United States focuses on controlling the public mind, and not on informing it. Media Control is an invaluable primer on the secret workings of disinformation in democratic societies.

The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made. --P.J. O'Rourke

Hailed as the first freedom, free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat.

In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders--from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Rāzī, to the anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells and modern-day digital activists--Mchangama reveals how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech, too, is a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all stripes.

Meticulously researched and deeply humane, Free Speech demonstrates how much we have gained from this principle--and how much we stand to lose without it.

A hilarious and horrifying journey into the dark heart of the ‟New Normal Reich. C. J. Hopkins's latest volume of Consent Factory Essays chronicles his Kafkaesque prosecution in Germany, the broader crackdown on dissent throughout the West, and other unsettling features of the ‟New Normal--the new pathologized form of totalitarianism that was rolled out during ‟the Covid Pandemic, which is radically transforming societies around the world.

Charged by the German authorities with ‟disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda for tweeting the cover art of his bestselling book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021), Hopkins's absurdist adventures in the German legal system--where he was pronounced guilty without a trial, then acquitted, and then ‟unacquitted--make for harrowing and uproariously humorous reading. Prosecuted in criminal court, his book banned by Amazon, his tweets censored by Twitter, reported to Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office and the Bundesam für Verfassungsschutz, its domestic intelligence agency, his battle to defend his right to freedom of speech and artistic expression has become an international cause célèbre, receiving major media coverage in the USA, UK, Australia, and Switzerland, as well as Germany.

Spanning the years 2022-2024, the essays in this volume also cover the crackdown on so-called ‟disinformation, ‟hate-speech, and other forms of wrongthink, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the culture wars, the rise of the ‟Musk Cult, the return of Trump, and the rest of the aftermath of the ‟Covid Pandemic.

Highlighting the year's most significant independent journalism--including reports on toxic chemicals, climate disinformation, and union victories--Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2024 illuminates issues and raises voices that the establishment press have throttled.

Includes a Foreword by Alan MacLeod, independent investigative journalist and editor of Propaganda in the Information Age.

State of the Free Press 2024 shows how independent journalism can promote civic engagement and reconnect people who have otherwise lost interest in sensational news that distracts and polarizes us.

Balancing critical analysis with optimistic vision, the book's diverse contributors champion press freedom and critical media literacy to hold the powerful accountable and promote a more just and inclusive society.

State of the Free Press 2024 is a joint production of The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.

The reign of Big Tech is here, and Americans' First Amendment rights hang by a keystroke.

Amassing unimaginable amounts of personal data, giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple--once symbols of American ingenuity and freedom--have become a techno-oligarchy with overwhelming economic and political power.

Decades of unchecked data collection have given Big Tech more targeted control over Americans' daily lives than any company or government in the world. In The Tyranny of Big Tech, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri argues that these mega-corporations--controlled by the robber barons of the modern era--are the gravest threat to American liberty in decades.

To reverse course, Hawley argues, we must correct progressives' mistakes of the past. That means recovering the link between liberty and democratic participation, building an economy that makes the working class strong, independent, and beholden to no one, and curbing the influence of corporate and political elites.

Big Tech and its allies do not deal gently with those who cross them, and Senator Hawley proudly bears his own battle scars. But hubris is dangerous. The time is ripe to overcome the tyranny of Big Tech by reshaping the business and legal landscape of the digital world.

Little Red Barns is a groundbreaking investigation of factory farms and the unprecedented measures being taken to hide their impact -- on animals, public health, and the environment -- from the public.

Will Potter had planned to write a book about a troubling form of censorship, namely, a host of new ag-gag laws that criminalize photographers and journalists as terrorists for their efforts to expose abuses on factory farms. But his work soon expanded into a much larger investigation of a nexus of political corruption and corporate power that works to silence protest and to obscure reality with propaganda. What emerges is a chilling account of the secret campaigns of weaponized storytelling being used to prevent us from seeing the ecological, public health, and authoritarian threats that these farms represent.

Potter's journalistic practice of bearing witness took him to places he had never expected, from factory farms to fascist groups, from whistleblowing to censorship laws, political corruption and propaganda campaigns, and the book is an immersive, engaging personal account of the ups and downs of his journey. A well-woven tale of investigative reporting, archival research, photography, and memoir, Little Red Barns is about how the biggest industries on the planet hide from the public and secretly campaign to silence protest. The little red barns are a case study, and a warning for anyone concerned about the right to protest and hold corporations accountable.

Global adoption of the Internet has exploded, yet we are only beginning to understand the Internet's profound political consequences. Authoritarian states are digitally catching up with their democratic counterparts, and both are showing a growing interest in the use of cyber controls--online censorship and surveillance technologies--that allow governments to exercise control over the Internet. Under what conditions does a digitally connected society actually help states target their enemies? Why do repressive governments sometimes shut down the Internet when faced with uprisings? And how have cyber controls become a dependable tool in the weapons arsenal that states use in civil conflict?

In Repression in the Digital Age, Anita R. Gohdes addresses these questions, and provides an original and in-depth look into the relationship between digital technologies and state violence. Drawing on large-scale analyses of fine-grained data on the Syrian conflict, qualitative case evidence from Iran, and the first global comparative analysis on Internet outages and state repression, Gohdes makes the case that digital infrastructure supports security forces in their use of violent state repression. More specifically, she argues that mass access to the Internet presents governments who fear for their political survival with a set of response options. When faced with a political threat, they can either temporarily restrict or block online public access or they can expand mass access to online information and monitor it to their own advantage. Surveillance allows security forces to target opponents of the state more selectively, while extreme forms of censorship or shutdowns of the Internet occur in conjunction with larger and more indiscriminate repression. As digital communication has become a bedrock of modern opposition and protest movements, Repression in the Digital Age breaks new ground in examining state repression in the information age.

The eagerly awaited English edition of Bought Journalists was suppressed for three years under the title Journalists for Hire -- and still got 24 five-star-only Amazon reviews from would-be readers. 18 months on the bestseller list in Germany. Now it's finally here

Ever get the feeling the media tries to manipulate or lie to you? You have plenty of company And you are right -- the facts are in. A world-class media insider has blown the whistle on what really goes on inside the media industry.

Author Udo Ulfkotte was a respected journalist for 17 years with Germany's newspaper of record, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He begins this explosive expos by first owning up to his own career, where he had to sell out to have the job. He then reveals the deceptive tricks and secret networks of power within the media. How perks are used to bribe journalists and opinion makers to twist their reporting. How the tone of corruption is set from the top -- play along or quit. How the long arm of the NATO press office enrolls the media to get Europe to support more foreign wars.

The elite owners of the media feel it's their right to think for us, and to mold public opinion to their agendas. Their Freedom of the Press is Freedom to Censor the news.

Our nation depends on the media to understand our world, just as each one of us depends on our eyes and ears. The media are our senses. When they hide the truth, or lie to us, they put us all in danger.

A million people died in Iraq, Libya and Syria because the press didn't just report the news, didn't just lie about the news, but they invented and sold the events that served as pretexts for wars. The author spent years in the Middle East, surviving an attack with chemical weapons supplied by US and German firms.

This book is a veteran's guide to the media spider's web. It shows how the system works, sharpens your common sense skepticism, and increases your immunity to the controlled media's attempts to do our thinking for us.

This is a surreal time for freedom of speech. While the legal protections of the First Amendment remain strong, the culture is obsessed with punishing individuals for allegedly offensive utterances. And academia - already an institution in which free speech is in decline - has grown still more intolerant, with high-profile disinvitation efforts against well-known speakers and demands for professors to provide trigger warnings in class.

In this Broadside, Greg Lukianoff argues that the threats to free speech go well beyond political correctness or liberal groupthink. As global populations increasingly expect not just physical comfort but also intellectual comfort, threats to freedom of speech are only going to become more intense. To fight back, we must understand this trend and see how students and average citizens alike are increasingly demanding freedom from speech.

Este libro cuenta lo que el prestigioso periodista Jorge Ramos no ha podido decir por televisi n. Como l mismo dice, muchas veces las cosas m s interesantes al cubrir una noticia ocurren detr s de las c maras y estos relatos de viajes son el mejor ejemplo. Como reportero conductor titular del Noticiero Univision y escritor de varios libros, Ramos ha recorrido el mundo en busca de la noticia y ha entrevistado a algunos de los personajes m s poderosos del mundo. Todas esas vivencias est n aqu . Adem s, esta versi n actualizada del libro incluye sus experiencias, nunca antes contadas, en la guerra de Irak. Algunos relatos son s lo ojeadas, hasta pesta azos, de sus viajes. En otros, se adentra a lo m s profundo y doloroso de un pa s. Todos est n cargados de emoci n y han marcado al periodista de una forma muy personal. Ver con los ojos bien abiertos y luego contar lo que viste, dice Ramos, es la funci n fundamental de un periodista. Solo ese ejercicio b sico le permite despu s decir: Yo lo vi, nadie me lo cont .

Ban This Book Now!: The Politics and Power of Book Bans starts with a cheeky, sarcastic introduction that might have you chuckling, but the humor quickly gives way to a compelling investigation into a serious issue - book banning. This incisive examination takes you on an enlightening tour of the categories of book bans, showcasing the specific titles that have fallen prey to censorship, and the motivations behind these actions.

As you journey through its pages, this book exposes the real costs of book bans - to education, to diversity, to the free flow of ideas, and to the intellectual growth of individuals and societies. It probes the driving forces behind censorship, from political ideologies to cultural conservatism, and unpacks the often veiled reasons for each prohibition.

Ban This Book Now delves into the disquieting consequences of suppressing literature. It spotlights the implications for critical thinking, academic freedom, and societal progress when certain narratives are silenced. It raises pressing questions about what is at stake when the powerful decide which stories get to be told and which don't.

The book concludes with a powerful call to action, detailing ways readers can combat book bans and fight for intellectual freedom. It is a clarion call to resist the erasure of diverse voices in literature.

Satirical, yet sincere, Ban This Book Now! is a crucial read for book lovers, educators, and anyone passionate about preserving freedom of thought. The book challenges, educates, and inspires readers to acknowledge the silent war against literature and to rise up against censorship.

The WikiLeaks publisher and free speech campaigner Julian Assange has, since April 2019, been remanded at a maximum security prison in London facing extradition to the United States over WikiLeaks' groundbreaking 2010 publications. Now, in this crisp anthology, Assange's voice emerges - erudite, analytic and prophetic.

Julian Assange In His Own Words provides a highly accessible survey of Assange's philosophy and politics, conveying his views on how governments, corporations, intelligence agencies and the media function. As well as addressing the significance of the vast trove of leaked documents published by WikiLeaks, Assange draws on a polymathic intelligence to range freely over quantum physics, Greek mythology, macroeconomics, modern literature, and empires old and new.

Drawing on his insights as the world's most famous free speech activist Assange invites us to ask further questions about how power operates in a world increasingly dominated by a ubiquitous internet.

Assange may be gagged, but in these pages his words run free, providing both an exhortation to fight for a better world and an inspiration when doing so.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

An excellent take on the lunacy affecting much of the world today. Douglas is one of the bright lights that could lead us out of the darkness. - Joe Rogan

Douglas Murray fights the good fight for freedom of speech ... A truthful look at today's most divisive issues - Jordan B. Peterson

Are we living through the great derangement of our times?

In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of 'woke' culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of 'wokeness', the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.

One of the few writers who dares to counter the prevailing view and question the dramatic changes in our society - from gender reassignment for children to the impact of transgender rights on women - Murray's penetrating book clears a path of sanity through the fog of our modern predicament.

After being forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy, Julian Assange is now in a high security prison in London where he faces extradition to the United States and imprisonment for the rest of his life.

The charges Assange faces are a major threat to press freedom. James Goodale, who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case, commented: The charge against Assange for 'conspiring' with a source is the most dangerous I can think of with respect to the First Amendment in all my years representing media organizations.

It is critical now to build support for Assange and prevent his delivery into the hands of the Trump administration. That is the urgent purpose of this book. A wide range of distinguished contributors, many of them in original pieces, here set out the story of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, the importance of their work, and the dangers for us all in the persecution they face. In Defense of Julian Assange is a vivid, vital intervention into one of the most important political issues of our day.