Reporters are getting fired after commenting on-air, or writing critical columns about the government’s anti-terrorism war.
So notes a group called the National Coalition Against Censorship in its “Free Expression After September 11th – An Online Index” website.
The index tracks various censorship and free expression incidents stemming from the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The incidents are organized into categories, including censorship examples from the fields of art, entertainment, news and commentary, schools, the workplace, and other miscellaneous areas.
Included in the index are well known examples such as current government controls over firsthand press access to information about military activities and the controversy regarding “Politically Incorrect” host Bill Maher.
There’s a growing list of incidents involving journalists like Dan Guthrie, a columnist for the Grants Pass Daily Courier in Oregon who was fired after he wrote a column criticizing President Bush for not being more visible following news of the Sept. 11 attacks.
There are lesser known examples including the Philadelphia man who was turned away from two flights by airport security because of books he had in his possession and a Missouri fifth-grader who was suspended from school for his drawing of the World Trade Center on fire.
The index also links to other anti-censorship resources like the Chilling Effects of Anti-Terrorism from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a list of incidents involving colleges and universities called FIRE and the Aftermath of September 11 compiled by the the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.