Today, across the cultural spectrum, artistic freedom is under assault. Free expression in popular music, photography, painting, cinema and other arts is threatened by pressure from lawmakers, prosecutors and self-appointed guardians of morality and taste. Succumbing to that pressure, more and more music stores, museums, schools, theatres, television stations, bookstores and video shops are restricting the display or availability of images and words deemed to be offensive to one group of citizens or another.

The roots of contemporary efforts to curb free expression in the arts reach back to the early 1980's, when a backlash arose against the cultural freedom of previous decades. Religious fundamentalists and others, with overt support from the administration of President Ronald Reagan, began to advocate censorship of books, films and television in an effort to enforce cultural conformism. Today, we are reaping the harvest of that backlash as rap singers and museum directors are prosecuted for obscenity, performance artists are denied government grants and Congress passes new censorship laws.

Artistic expression has come under attack in other periods of our country's history. Defending artistic expression, which is one of our most basic freedoms, remains among the ACLU's highest priorities. Here are the ACLU's answers to questions often asked by the public about artistic freedom.

Today, across the cultural spectrum, artistic freedom is under assault. Free expression in popular music, photography, painting, cinema and other arts is threatened by pressure from lawmakers, prosecutors and self-appointed guardians of morality and taste. Succumbing to that pressure, more and more music stores, museums, schools, theatres, television stations, bookstores and video shops are restricting the display or availability of images and words deemed to be offensive to one group of citizens or another.