UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION :
CENSORSHIP:
Database Restricted "Abortion" Searches: USAID Did Not Call for Either
Keyword or Article Removal
Database Restricted "Abortion" Searches: USAID Did Not Call for Either
Keyword or Article Removal
By Max McKenna
Issue date: 4/10/08
The Johns Hopkins Newsletter
<http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2008/04/
10/NewsFeatures/Database.Restricted.abortion.Searches-3318285.shtml>
A shorter URL for the above link:
When the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which
funds POPLINE, found two articles advocating abortion in the database, it
contacted system moderators at the Bloomberg School.
The Center for Communication Programs at Bloomberg proceeded to remove the
two articles in addition to five other articles associating abortion with
human rights.
The Center then placed "abortion" on a list of stop-words - words like
"a," "an" and "the" - that search engines are designed to ignore.
A USAID spokesperson said that the agency did not ask for the article's
removal or for the removal of "abortion" as a keyword, and that "the USAID
just inquired about some of the article's criteria for inclusion."
The spokesperson said the USAID did not ask for the articles' removal or
for the removal of "abortion" as a keyword.
<snip>
"In my judgment, the decision to block the search term was an overreaction
on the part of the POPLINE staff," said Michael Klag, dean of the
Bloomberg School in a press release Tuesday. "Other measures are available
to us for ensuring that items in the POPLINE database meet USAID
guidelines."
--------------------------------------
The complete article may be read at the URL above.
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@temple.edu
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