Ofac Reverses Censorship Policy

OFAC Reverses Censorship Policy

Further to William Fisher’s guest editorial here on last Friday, good news! OFAC has reversed itself on several of its provisions for censoring manuscripts from Iran, Cuba Sudan.

The issue, however, has not gone away. The Scientist notes, “But Edward Davis, one of the publishers’ attorneys, said yesterday that the publishers are not yet ready to drop their lawsuit, filed September 27, because the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), by granting a general license, continues to assert that it can regulate informational materials. The plaintiffs argue that OFAC has no such authority.”

So the key points made by Fisher continue to be salient in principle.

[Just by way of explanation, Mr. Fisher had submitted that piece as a guest editorial the previous weekend, and I scheduled it to appear while I was abroad and out of much email contact. Thanks to readers for drawing my attention to the new developments. Now let us hope that the publishers win their lawsuit and stop this attack on the first amendment altogether.]