|
Spokespeople for the American Civil Liberties Union and Tacoma (Wash.) Public Library are agreeing that the Tacoma News Tribune miscast differing views of TPL's blocking of sexually explicit cyber-images as an imminent First Amendment lawsuit in a July 31 story.
Although the ACLU of Washington State has "an ongoing concern with the policy," spokesperson Doug Honig told American Libraries his organization hasn't formally registered its misgivings "and has no deadline to do so." TPL Community Relations Officer David Dombrowski attributed the News Tribune's interest to a July 28 Seattle Post-Intelligencer story that said the ACLU would soon ask TPL to change its policies.
According to Main Library Manager David Biek, TPL staffers "wrote a browser in house" that has been delivering sexually explicit text devoid of accompanying images for 18 months. "That's basically saying it's OK—metaphorically speaking—to tear pictures out of art books," ACLU legislative counsel Jerry Sheehan told the News Tribune.
Posted August 10, 1998.
|
