[Asis-l] ALA Hypocrisy Protested in Idaho

[Richard Hill]

[Message below was inadvertently not transmitted.  Sent by 
RKent20551 at cs.com.  Dick Hill]

[NOTE:  Below is an article from the ISU Bengal, the Idaho State University
newspaper.  Although accurate in substance, the reporter did misquote the
Friends in stating that we believe the ALA is an extremist group that fails to
honor its own principles.  We would re-phrase the statement to say that ALA 
policy
on Cuba, rather than the ALA in general, is controlled by extremists who are
determined to destroy the organization's hard-won reputation as a principled
defender of intellectual freedom. - The Friends of Cuban Libraries
(www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org) ]

ISU Bengal, Oct. 9, 2003

      ORGANIZATION QUESTIONS ALA

By Tammy Scardino

The American Library Association identifies itself as being a protector of
thought. Judith Krug, director of the office for intellectual freedom of the
ALA, spoke last week at ISU's Oboler Library on protecting free speech rights.
But not everyone agrees that they are upholding their pledge to protect
librarians from legal combat. Robert Kent, the co-founder of the Friends of 
Cuban
Libraries Organization, claims the ALA is an extremist group that failed to 
honor
its own principles.

According to a news article from New York, Radames Suarez of the Friends of
Cuban Libraries questions Krug and the ALA' s claim as defenders of
intellectual freedom in the United States while ignoring their stated 
commitment to
oppose government censorship and repression all over the world. Even 
further, Kent
says that they dared to say that they could not find any evidence of
censorship in Cuba when they sent a team there to investigate.

"They [the ALA] are trying to play politics while we try to defend the
principle," says Kent.

The Friends of Cuban Libraries was founded in June of 1999. According to its
Web site, the Committee to Protect Journalists has named Cuba among the
world's "Ten Worst Enemies of the Press" for six years in a row. Their Web 
site
lists a number of documented news articles on the subject, most of them 
deriving
from New York, Washington, and London. According to Kent, Europe is now 
turning
its attention to Cuba.

In one article from June 2003, ALA President Mitch Freedman said that the
facts on Cuba were still murky. The director of the ALA's International 
Relations
Office, Michael Dowling, said in the same article that there has been no
evidence that books are banned and that librarians are harassed.
               ###

[ For more details: (WWW.FRIENDSOFCUBANLIBRARIES.ORG) ]




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