The right to freedom of expression, highly valued in the United States, is facing a rapidly increasing number of threats. Conservative groups are aggressively targeting schools and books, seeking to suppress discussions on topics such as racism, LGBTQ+, sexuality, and sexual violence. PEN America, a non-profit organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression and human rights, has documented nearly 16,000 instances of book bans in public schools across the nation since 2021. This figure is unprecedented and echoes the Red Scare McCarthy era of the 1950s. FRANCE 24’s Eve Irvine is delighted to welcome Sabrina Baeta, a author, poet, and Senior Program Manager for the Freedom to Read program at PEN America, to the show.

Source: https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250310-pen-america-on-book-banning-we-re-supposed-to-be-a-country-that-espouses-freedom-of-expression