The annual yearbook from Project Censored features the year's most underreported news stories, striving to unmask censorship, self-censorship, and propaganda in corporate-controlled media outlets. Featuring the top 25 most underreported stories, as voted by scholars, journalists, and activists across the country and around the world, as well as chapters exploring timely issues from the previous year with more in-depth analysis.

The new and improved "Censored," detailing the top censored stories and media analysis of 2020. Our nation's oldest news-monitoring group, Project Censored, refreshes its longstanding yearbook series, Censored, with State of the Free Press 2021. This edition offers a more succinct and comprehensive survey of the most important but underreported news stories of 2020; in addition to a comparative analysis of the current state of corporate and independent news media, and its effect on democracy. The establishment media sustains a decrepit post-truth era, as examined the lowlight features: "Junk Food News"-frivolous stories that distract the public from actual news-and-"News Abuse"-important stories covered in ways that undermine public understanding. The alternative media provokes a burgeoning critical media literacy age, as evaluated in the highlight feature: "Media Democracy in Action"-relevant stories responsibly reported on by independent organizations. Finally, in an homage to the history of the annual report, the editors reinstate the "Déjà vu News" feature-revisited stories from previous editions. State of the Free Press 2021 endows readers with the critical thinking and media literacy skills required to hold the corporate media to account for distorting or censoring news coverage, and thus, to revitalize our democracy.

You’re Never Too Young to Fight Censorship! In Ban This Book by Alan Gratz, a fourth grader fights back when From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg is challenged by a well-meaning parent and taken off the shelves of her school library. Amy Anne is shy and soft-spoken, but don’t mess with her when it comes to her favorite book in the whole world. Amy Anne and her lieutenants wage a battle for the books that will make you laugh and pump your fists as they start a secret banned books locker library, make up ridiculous reasons to ban every single book in the library to make a point, and take a stand against censorship. Ban This Book is a stirring defense against censorship that’s perfect for middle grade readers. Let kids know that they can make a difference in their schools, communities, and lives! “Readers, librarians, and all those books that have drawn a challenge have a brand new hero.... Stand up and cheer, book lovers. This one’s for you." —Kathi Appelt, author of the Newbery Honor-winning The Underneath “Ban This Book is absolutely brilliant and belongs on the shelves of every library in the multiverse.”—Lauren Myracle, author of the bestselling Internet Girls series, the most challenged books of 2009 and 2011 “Quick paced and with clear, easy-to-read prose, this is a book poised for wide readership and classroom use.”—Booklist "A stout defense of the right to read." —Kirkus Reviews “Gratz delivers a book lover’s book that speaks volumes about kids’ power to effect change at a grassroots level." —Publishers Weekly At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Read the book that inspired the movie! Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping novel about one girl's struggle for justice.

In the midst of Trump's attacks on the media, comes this look at the rigorous, independent reporting of the year's most underreported news stories. While the country's president displays a brazen disregard for the First Amendment and routinely demonizes the press as "the enemy of the people," Censored 2020 looks beyond Donald Trump's dizzying contempt for the truth to clarify the corporate media's complicity in misinforming the American public--while also providing a clear vision of a better future, based on rigorous, trustworthy independent reporting that presents a fuller picture of truth. With a discerning eye, Censored 2020 focuses the public's attention on the most important but underreported news stories of 2018-2019. These stories expose the corporate news media's systemic blind spots while highlighting the crucial role played by independent journalists in providing the kind of news necessary for informed, engaged citizens. The book also examines this year's lowlights in "junk food news" and "news abuse"--further revealing how corporate news often functions as propaganda--as well as highlights of exemplary organizations that champion "Media Democracy in Action." Additional chapters address the importance of constructive journalism, the untold story of Kashmir, news coverage of LGBTQ issues in the Trump era, "fake news" as a Trojan horse for censorship, and online memes as a form of political communication.

"[Censored] should be affixed to the bulletin boards in every newsroom in America. And, perhaps, read aloud to a few publishers and television executives."--RALPH NADER The annual yearbook from Project Censored features the year's most underreported news stories, striving to unmask censorship, self-censorship, and propaganda in corporate-controlled media outlets. Featuring the top 25 most underreported stories, as voted by scholars, journalists, and activists across the country and around the world, as well as chapters exploring timely issues from the previous year with more in-depth analysis.

More than 75 essays—many freshly composed by Mumia with the cartridge of a ball-point pen, the only implement he is allowed in his death-row cell—embody the calm and powerful words of humanity spoken by a man on Death Row. Abu-Jamal writes on many different topics, including the ironies that abound within the U.S. prison system and the consequences of those ironies, and his own case. Mumia's composure, humor, and connection to the living world around him represents an irrefutable victory over the "corrections" system that has for two decades sought to isolate and silence him. The title, All Things Censored, refers to Mumia's hiring as an on-air columnist by National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," and subsequent banning from that venue under pressure from law and order groups.