Freedom to Read

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress endorsed a new list of bibliography of books that were challenged, restricted, removed, or banned in 2008 and 2009 as reported in the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom from May 2008-May 2009.

Banned Books Week 2009 is the twenty-eighth annual celebration of the freedom to read.
Our First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Sexual aspect, profanity, and racism remain the major categories of objections and schools and school libraries have a desire to protect children and young adults from "bad" reading materials.
According to Robert P. Doyle, approximately 85 % of the challenges to library materials received no media attention and remain unreported.

Due to the commitment of parents, students, librarians, teachers, and other concerned citizens, more and more challenges are unsuccessful, and the reading material remains available. This is the reason we are celebrating the right of freedom to read.

There are many countries in the world, that have challenges in national literacy, freedom to read, and freedom to know. Some authors are living in exile and cannot enter the homeland, other are repressed and put in jail by their governments.