Go back to Table of Contents
Orme, Frank. "Morals on Your TV." Nation, 174:601-3, 21 June 1952. O102
The editor of TV Magazine criticizes the television code as unrealistic and unenforceable. He recommends dropping "the subterfuge of the code, and to come up with fair and open effort" to improve the situation.
-------. "The Television Code." Quarterly of Film, Radio and Television, 6:404-13, Summer 1952. O103
The author is concerned primarily with such negative elements as censorship, improper controls, and programming that is possibly injurious to segments of the television audience.
O'Rourke, Dennis. "Freedom of the Press and Contempt of Court." George Washington Law Review, 7:234-42, December 1938. O104
A history of the long-standing feud between the exponents of civil liberties and the power of the courts to inflict summary punishment for contempt.
Orvis, Caroline. "Censorship of Fiction in the Public Library." South Dakota Library Bulletin, 16:9-11, March 1930. O105
Suggestions for limiting the circulation of "adult" books to the mature reader only.
Orwell, George. "The Prevention of Literature." Atlantic Monthly, 179:115-19, March 1947. (Reprinted in Downs, The First Freedom, pp. 411-17; in McCormick, Versions of Cernorship, pp. 285-99; and in Orwell, Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays. New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1945, pp. 104-21) O106
Comments by the English novelist and critic of totalitarianism on freedom of speech and the press: "Though other aspects of the matter are usually in the foreground, the controversy over freedom of speech and of the press is at bottom a controversy over the desirability, or otherwise, of telling lies. What is really at issue is the right to report contemporary events truthfully." Intellectual freedom is under attack on the one hand by apologists of totalitarianism and, on the other, by the drift toward monopoly and bureaucracy.
Osborn, Tom. "Censor by Jury?" Plays and Players, 11(12):9, September 1964. O107
"Disagreement this month between the Lord Chamberlain and the Royal Shakespeare Company over Roger Victrac's Victor at the Aldwych again spotlights the weaknesses in the stage's antiquated form of censorship. Tom Osborn here puts the case for more democratic methods."
Osgood, Herbert L. "Controversies during the Administration of Cosby and Clarke, the Zenger Episode, 1730-1740." In The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century. New York, Columbia University Press, 1924. vol. 2, pp. 443-82. O108
An account of the Zenger case as an episode in the history of the New York colony.
Oshkosh Public Library. The Freedom to Read: A Guide to Selection of Materials in the Media of Communication at the Oshkosh Public Library. Oshkosh, Wis., The Public Library, 1963. 13p. O109
An example of a public library book selection policy statement, prefaced by the American Library Association's Freedom to Read statement, adopted by the Oshkosh Public Library Board. There follows an outline of the library's role in the community and the criteria used in the selection of various materials. "The library will not indicate, through the use of labels or other devices, particular philosophies outlined in a book. To do so is to establish in the reader's mind a judgment before the reader has had an opportunity to examine the book personally." Many library boards have adopted similar statements.
Osman, Alfred. "Are Photographers Pornographers?" Photography, 19:28-33, November 1964. O110
Deals with the effect of the new Obscene Publications Act in Great Britain.
O'Sullivan, Richard. A Guide to the Defamation Act, 1952. London, Sweet & Maxwell, 1952. 50p. (Current Law Guide no. 10) O111
An analysis of the British law of libel, as radically changed by the 1952 Defamation Act.
[Otis, Harrison G.]. Letter to Hon. Josiah Quincy, Judge of the Municipal Court, in the City of Boston, on the Law of Libel as Laid Down by Him in the Case of the Commonwealth v. Buckingham. By a Member of the Suffolk Bar. Boston, Wells and Lilly, 1823. 62p. O112
-------. Mr. Otis's Speech in Congress, on the Sedition Law, With Remarks by the "Examiner" [Benjamin Austin] on This Important Subiect. Boston. [1789]. 35p. O113
"The above speech was delivered by Mr. Otis on the petition of Matthew Lyon (a member of Congress), who was prosecuted under the sedition law." Otis expressed the Federalist point of view that freedom of the press was limited to exemption from prior restraints. Austin was a violent anti-Federalist from Massachusetts.
Otterbourg, Edwin M. "Fair Trial and Free Press." Journal of the American Judicature Society, 37:75-80, June 1953. O114
A plea for lawyers and the press to resolve the apparent conflict between the constitutional guarantees of fair trial and of free press, to avoid solution by legislative fiat or by judicial decree. Text of proposed Code on Fair Trial and Free Press follows the article.
-------. "Fair Trial and Free Press." New York State Bar Bulletin, 27:103-10, April 1955. O115
The chairman of a Special Committee on Fair Trial and Free Press of the New York County Lawyers' Association presents his Committee's proposal of a reasonable court rule governing fair trial and a free press.
-------. "Fair Trial and Free Press; A `New Look' in 1954." In Lectures on Communications Media, Legal and Policy Problems Delivered at University of Michigan Law School, June 16-June 18, 1954. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Law School, 1954, pp. 78-95. O116
The author proposes a voluntary agreement among press, bench, and bar, rather than legislative action to insure fair coverage of trials. Includes the text of the proposed code submitted by the New York County Lawyers' Association Committee.
-------. "Fair Trial and Free Press: a Subject Vital to the Existence of Democracy." American Bar Association Journal, 39:978-81, November 1953. O117
The author cites abuses of professional ethics by lawyers and editors in "trial by newspapers." Includes a list of cases and a proposed code on fair trial and free press.
-------. "The Right to Enforce Canon 20." Bar Bulletin, New York County Lawyers' Association, 13:197-99, March 1956. O118
Responding to criticism of his Committee's attempts to amend American Bar Association Canon 20 (Paul Williams, pp. 196, 200-201) the author states that no "gag" on lawyers or the press is possible or intended by the proposed changes.
-------, and Herbert Brucker. ["Fair Trial and a Free Press"]. Connecticut Bar Journal, 29:423-35, December 1955. O119
An attorney's point of view was presented by Edwin M. Otterbourg, chairman of the New York County Lawyers' Association Committee on Fair Trial and Free Press that had proposed a new code of ethics. The point of view of a newspaperman was presented by Herbert Brucker, editor of the Hartford Courant. Presented at the 1955 annual meeting of the State Bar Association of Connecticut.
Ould, Herman, ed. Freedom of Expression. A Symposium Based on the Conference Called by the London Centre of the International P.E.N. to Commemorate the Tercentenary of the Publication of Milton's Areopagitica: 22-26th August, 1944. London, Hutchinson International Authors, 1945. 184p. O120
Thirty-one distinguished men of science, letters, religion, and philosophy took part in what has been described as "probably the most impressive tribute that has ever been paid to the power and significance of a single book." E. M. Forster was president of the Conference. Among the contributions relating especially to freedom of the press are: Milton and the Modern Press by B. Ifor Evans; Liberty in Society by Salvador de Madariaga; a Materialist on Freedom and Values by J. B. S. Haldane; The Philosophical Basis of Toleration by Rev. W. R. Matthews; Leaven in the Loaf by Richard Church; Science, Culture and Freedom by John R. Baker; on Milton's Areopagitic by Herbert Read; Culture, Liberty and Science by George Catlin; The Conception of Literary Obscenity and the Freedom of Letters by Alec Craig; An Editor's View by Kingsley Martin; The Example of Milton by Mulk Raj Anand; An American's Tribute by Herbert Agar; and The Areopagitica of Milton after 300 Years by Harold J. Laski. P.E.N. is the International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists.
-------. Writers in Freedom; A Symposium Based on the XVII International Congress of the P.E.N. Club Held in London in September 1941. London, Hutchinson, 1942. 152p. O121
For 4 days in wartime London, professional writers from 35 countries discussed literature in relation to the wartime world and the world afrer the war and this volume is a record of their deliberations. "We all know," writes Ould in his introduction, "that the democratic way of life has to be defended all the time, in war and peace, by ceaseless vigilance, by free discussion, by keeping the ideal ever before us; and that is where the writer comes in . . . it is his business to see that the lines of communication are not cut. Books are the lines of communication between free men, and it is not merely out of caprice but for more sinister reasons that dictators burn, ban, and mutilate books. If it is important that men should come from all parts of the world to defend freedom on the battlefield, it is no less important that men should be recruited to defend it in the intellectual field."
"Our Censorship Committee." Scribner's Magazine, 51:762-63, June 1912. O122
A tongue-in-cheek article about the columnist's duties as a member of the library censorship committee. The members read the shocking books so that they might forbid their children to read them. "Yet, in spite of all this, the youngsters seem to know them about as well as we do ourselves."
Oursler, Will. "Books on Trial." Library Journal, 78:173-78, 1 Feburary 1953. O123
A review of the "Report of the Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials, House of Representatives, Eight-second Congress, Pursuant to H. Res. 596, a Resolution Creating a Select Committee to Conduct a Study and Investigation of Current Pornographic Materials."
Outland, Ethel R. The "Effingham" Libels on Cooper. Madison, Wis., University of Wisconsin Press, 1929. 272p. (Studies in Language and Literature no. 28) O124
A documentary account of the famous libel suits brought against the American press by the novelist James Fenimore Cooper in the years 1837-45. Cooper won most of the suits in his bitter war against the nation's press, but the severity of the court rulings contributed to the movement for more moderate libel laws.
Overton, Grant. "On Morality and Decency in Fiction." English Journal, 18:14-23, January 1929. O125
"We waste far too much time on decency and the details of current morality." We should instead judge the inner intention, the effect of the book on the spirit.
Overton, Nelson T. "The Virginia `Right of Privacy' Statute." Virginia Law Review, 38:117-25, January 1952. O126
An examination of the State's privacy statutes and cases since 1902.
[Overton, Richard]. The Araignement of Mr. Persecution . . . By Yongue Martin Mar-Preist . . . London, Printed by Martin Claw Clergie, 1645. 46p. (Reproduced in Haller, Tracts on Liberty in the Puritan Revolution, vol. 3, pp. 205-56) O127
With Lilburne and Walwyn, Overton was one of the three outstanding Leveller pamphleteers. Through his many tracts, which he printed on his own secret press, he gave vigorous and fiery support to the doctrines of the natural rights of man, religious toleration, popular government, and freedom of the press. The Araignement of Mr. Persecution was an allegorical account of persecution for political and religious nonconformity. In it he accuses the Presbyterians of wishing to displace the prelates as censors. The true authorship was not immediately discovered, but it stirred the Stationers' Company to action in suppressing the clandestine press.
-------. A Defiance against all Arbitrary Usurpations or Encroachments, either of the House of Lords, or any other, upon the Soveraignty of the Supreme House of Commons . . . or upon the Rights, Properties and Freedoms of the people in generall . . . London, 1646. 26p. O128
Written from Newgate prison where he was sent for his support of Lilburne and his refusal to answer questions about his pamphleteering put to him by the House of Lords. A Defiance gives an account of Overton's arrest and conviction. Frank, in his book, The Levellers (pp. 86-87), calls the pamphlet a work of art which "combines the broad humor of Dickens, the suspense of a good detective story, the indignation of Lilburne, and the insight of Walwyn."
-------. A Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens, and other Freeborn People of England, To their owne House of Commons. Occasioned through the Illegall and Barbarous Imprisonment of that Famous and Worthy Sufferer for his Countries Freedoms, Lieutenant Col. John Lilburne . . . London, 1646. 20p. (Reproduced in Haller, Tracts on Liberty in the Puritan Revolution, vol. 3, pp. 353-70) O129
This protest of the persecution of Lilburne, signed by "98,064 hands," urges Parliament to "let the imprisoned Presses at liberty, so that all mens understandings may be more conveniently informed." The tract was declared "scandalous," and a committee was appointed to discover its author and publisher. The pamphlet, published anonymously and without license or imprint, is generally attributed to Overton. Wolf states that Walwyn probably collaborated with Overton in the writing.
Owen, Ralph D. "Jehovah's Witnesses and Their Four Freedoms." University of Detroit Law Journal, 14:111-34, March 1951. O130
[Owen, William]. "Trial for Publishing a Seditious Libel, 1752." In Howell, State Trials, vol. 18, pp. 1203 ff. (Also issued with the Almon edition of John Peter Zenger trial, London, 1765, pp. 49-59) O131
Owen was brought to trial for publishing a pamphlet critical of the House of Commons, The Case of the Hon. Alexander Murray . . . Possibly influenced by the widely publicized Zenger case in New York, the jury failed to convict the defendant, despite the instructions of Lord Chief Justice Lee to ignore the intent of the offending publication.
Oxford University. The Judgment and Decree of the University of Oxford, past in their Convocation, July 21, 1683, against certain pernicious books, and damnable doctrines, destructive to the sacred persons of princes, their State and Government, and all Human Society. Oxford, 1683. 9p. (Reprinted in Farrer, Books Condemned to Be Burnt, pp. 191-99) O132
Following the Rye House Plot to kill Charles II, Oxford University issued this decree for the public burning of certain pernicious books, including works by Milton, Goodwin, Baxter, Knox, and Hobbes.
Ozman, Howard A., Jr. "Better Dead than Well-Read?" Phi Delta Kappan, 43:222-23, February 1962. O133
"Texans for America" found 50 out of 100 history textbooks to be "un-American." "If there is anything that America needs, it is to be better read . . . When we censor the writings of great men we not only make it more difficult for the present generation to understand the world they live in but we also-because of the climate of conformity that censorship promotes-prevent future writers from expressing themselves freely."
|
Comments: Web Administrator Privacy Policy Last Updated |
Go To Bibliography Text of P