Family Research Council Claims
ALA Suppresses Cybersmut Complaints
“Tomorrow the ALA will celebrate national Freedom of Information Day, even though they are trying to hinder free information from being reported on pornography access in libraries,” Janet Parshall of the Family Research Council declared at a March 15 press conference in the National Press Club’s First Amendment Room. Parshall went on to charge that ALA’s “pointed efforts” to keep libraries from responding to David Burt’s spring 1999 Freedom of Information Access request has resulted in documentation of “less than 1% of total incidents involving patrons accessing pornography in libraries.”
Parshall also announced the availability of the FRC report Dangerous Access, 2000 Edition, written by Burt from the FOIA replies he received.
Other speakers at the press conference included U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), who sponsored legislation last year tying e-rate eligibility to installation of Internet filters; Alx Bradley, 13, who told how she accidentally accessed cyberporn at the Santa Clara County (Calif.) Free Library; and former King County (Wash.) Library worker Heidi Borton, who spearheaded an anti-pornography library picket last fall.
Posted March 20, 2000.
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