Jonathan Friedman 📚

A school board immediately revokes access to a long list of books in response to a thinly-supported objection, usually from 1 person. Board members don't: ❎ read the books ❎ follow policies ❎ say how long these removals will last It's called book banning. 📚📚📚🧵

"With humor and humility, Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves last night," writes @jonfreadom. "Kimmel’s return was in many ways a victory for free speech and its advocates, including PEN America, who had fiercely coalesced against his suspension." pen.org/jimmy-kimmel-r…

In fact, I wrote about this very thing earlier this week for @PENamerica . share.google/KIuWf5NYq2mgPe…

A victory for free speech. Now let's hope, as @JimmyKimmelLive called for, people also raise their voices for other free speech, academic freedom, press freedom cases. For the ppl that don't have the same prominence. Lord knows there are enough of 'em! nytimes.com/2025/09/26/bus…

ARC condemns the Whitney Museum’s cancellation of No Aesthetic Outside My Freedom, a vital performance mourning Palestinian lives. This act of censorship echoes the troubling trends we documented with @MuseumDirectors & @PENamerica.🧵👇 artistsatriskconnection.org/statement/arc-… #ArtisticFreedom

“This policy risks upending the long-standing place of the U.S. as a beacon for intellectual and cultural exchange with the world,” said PEN America's @jonfreadom as Trump administration halts scheduling of new visa interviews for international students apnews.com/article/intern…

PEN America: AI-Generated Fake Book List Seems Funny, but Reflects the Technology’s Danger to Journalism pen.org/ai-generated-f…

Five major U.S.-based press freedom organizations — @pressfreedom @FreedomofPress @IWMF @PENAmerica and @rcfp — announced today the launch of a network to provide legal and safety resources and training to journalists and newsrooms in the United States. pen.org/press-release/…

Revoking Harvard's right to enroll international students is "a brazen escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on the higher education sector... (that) reduces international students to pawns in a political game," says PEN America's @jonfreadom. pen.org/press-release/…

PEN America: Decision to Cancel Kehlani Concert at NYC’s Central Park is “Cowardly” and Suppresses “Artistic Expression” pen.org/press-release/…

“What we’re seeing now is very dangerous,” said PEN America's Jonathan Friedman (@jonfreadom). “When you attach these punitive potential actions to these concepts, you can comb through anything a university is doing and find fault.” nytimes.com/2025/05/05/art…

The decision in Alabama may have been the first time a local public library was targeted for defunding by a state government, said @jonfreadom, who directs U.S. free expression programs at the nonprofit PEN America. nytimes.com/2025/05/04/us/…

In response to a public records request from the @TXFreedomRead Project, a school district in Texas has acknowledged it removed the entry for "Virginia" from its online learning platform for violating the school board’s new policy against "frontal nudity." pen.org/yes-virginia-y…

PEN America announces A Pledge to Our Democracy – a powerful call-to-action endorsed by more than 100 former college and university presidents and chancellors representing all sectors of higher education: pen.org/press-release/…

There's still an adult in the room in North Dakota. Republican Gov Armstrong did the reasonable thing- vetoed a bill that would censor libraries, saying it was a "misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship". More of this 🙏 apnews.com/article/north-…

New pod: PEN's @jonfreadom is brilliant on the larger stakes of Trump war on Harvard. "It's a game changer. It says to every institution that is feeling like they have to capitulate that there is something greater that they have to stand for." Listen: newrepublic.com/article/194046…

Harvard’s pushback against the Trump administration "is a game changer," @jonfreadom tells @GregTSargent. "It says to every institution that is feeling like they have to capitulate that there is something greater that they have to stand for." Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tru…

@jonfreadom x.com/matthewboedy/s…

The US Naval Academy is banning books from its library, including about the Holocaust. Books are not the enemy; ignorance is the enemy. apnews.com/article/navy-d…

381 books banned from the Naval Academy. College level library. Banning books. All about race, racism, gender. List published by @nytimes. #11 is Our Time is Now by @staceyabrams. Many others worth noting here. Attn: @MacmillanUSA @PENamerica nytimes.com/interactive/20…