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Chicago: Book Advertisements Banned on Transit
December 06, 2004
PEN USA denounces the actions of Viacom Outdoor Marketing in its decision to ban posters advertising Mumia Abu-Jamal’s new book from the subways in Chicago.
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South End Press, the 27-year old independent book publisher releasing Abu-Jamal’s new book, discovered the ban when a caller informed them that he had witnessed a police officer ripping a paid poster from the train’s interior. When he asked why, he was threatened with a citation. The South End Press investigated the report and found out that ads for the book We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party had indeed been banned from Chicago’s public transit system.
The book describes Abu-Jamal’s life in the Black Panthers. Abu-Jamal is currently on death row for allegedly shooting a police officer in 1981. He writes books from prison.
When asked for comment, Viacom Outdoor Marketing, which manages the advertisements on Chicago transit, said, “the Chicago Transit Authority can no longer accept any more advertisements on this author.” Viacom, Inc., of which Viacom Outdoor Marketing is a subsidiary, owns MTV and refused to air a music video by group Public Enemy because of the line, “Free Mumia” in the song.
PEN USA is appalled that Viacom Outdoor Marketing is removing paid ads from the subway systems, and refusing to let South End Press advertising Abu-Jamal’s book. It is not the ads themselves that are controversial, but rather, the book itself. By selectively choosing not to accept an ad on this book, Viacom and the Chicago Transit Authority are making value judgments about it and censoring it from the public.
PEN USA cites a recent similar case in Boston, when the Mass Transit Authority refused to display advertisements from a group that wants to legalize marijuana. A federal appeals court ruled that the transit agency violated free-speech rights. “As a government agency, they shouldn’t have the right to pick and choose what opinions they allow to be advertised,” said Harvey Schwartz, an attorney for the group.
Stephen Rohde, First Amendment lawyer and Vice President of PEN USA’s Domestic Freedom to Write program, said, “It’s an ugly buisness for a city transit authority and its marketing management to ban the advertising of a book. Entangling the government in such an act of censorship is a clear violation of the First Amendment. The free flow of information about the publication of books should not be restricted. Books from every point of view should be advertised, letting the public decide what to buy and what not to buy. Constricting the marketplace of ideas is un-American.”
Recommended Action: Write Viacom Outdoor’s Chicago branch and express displeasure with the way they handled this situation.
For Chicago:
John Blunda
VP Central Region (Transit)
444 N. Michigan Avenue,
Chicago, IL
60611
Tel: 312.396.5700
Fax: 312.527.9019