[MD] 2011 Jefferson muzzles

[MarshaV]

RMP:
"Because in this Metaphysics of Quality, intellect is a higher level of evolution, and when a social organization, whether it's nazis, or communists, or anybody tries to prevent this evolution from taking place that is an immoral act, that's an evil act.  And you see it happening.  Once you understand this, you see it happening in all sorts of places that you wouldn't expect it normally."
     (The MoQ at Oxford)


Obama administration, BP win Muzzle awards 
First Amendment Watch 
 
Oil giant BP and the Obama administration were among the winners of the 20th Annual Jefferson Muzzle awards, a dubious distinction bestowed today by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression to spotlight the worst censors of the previous year.

BP and the federal government appeared on the list for their roles in restricting news media access to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The Obama administration joins every other presidency over the past 20 years as a Muzzle winner, said Robert O’Neil, the center’s director. “No administration has passed unscathed over this time period.”

O’Neil said there was a “sharing of responsibility” between BP and the administration but there certainly was “evidence of culpability on the part of the Administration” in limiting media access.

Other Muzzle winners include:

• The Transportation Security Administration, which arrested a passenger who stripped to his shorts to bare the text of the Fourth Amendment on his chest to protest increased security measures such as body scans.

• The Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for removing a work of video art that included an 11-second display of ants on a crucifix.

• The Virginia Department of Corrections, for denying prisoners access to the book The Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook: How to Bring a Federal Lawsuit to Challenge Violations of Your Rights in Prison.

• Mississippi state court judge Talmadge Littlejohn, who jailed a lawyer for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in his courtroom.

• Gail Sweet, director of the Burlington County (N.J.) Library System, for removing copies ofRevolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology because she disliked its content.

• The administration at Albemarle (Va.) High School, for destroying all copies of a school newspaper because it contained an editorial questioning why student athletes should have to take physical education classes.

• The administration of Hamilton College, a private college in New York, for requiring male first-year students to attend a seminar titled “She Fears You” as part of orientation.


http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=24080  

http://www.tjcenter.org/muzzles/muzzle-archive-2011/    



 
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