 Organization banner image | |
| Abbreviation | FEPP |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2000 |
| Founder | Marjorie Heins |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Legal status | Active |
| Purpose | Freedom of speech research and advocacy |
| Location | |
Official language | English |
| Affiliations | National Coalition Against Censorship Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School |
| Website | www |
The Free Expression Policy Project (FEPP) is an organization devoted to assisting researchers with assembling information related to freedom of speech, media democracy, and copyright, and advocating for these issues. Civil liberties lawyer Marjorie Heins founded the nonprofit organization in 2000. Based in Manhattan, New York, it was initially associated with the National Coalition Against Censorship, and subsequently operated as part of the Democracy Program of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.
The FEPP conducted a survey in 2001 which revealed that online monitoring software, including Net Nanny, SurfWatch, and Cybersitter, cast too broad a net and often blocked legitimate educational websites in their attempts to censor material from youths. In 2003, the organization assisted 33 academics in filing a friend-of-the-court brief challenging a law which restricted the sale of violent video games to minors. In coordination with the Brennan Center for Justice, the FEPP released a public policy report in 2006 on the inefficiency of Internet filtering; the report concluded that freedom of expression was harmed by such online censorship activity. In 2007, the FEPP became an independent organization.
The New Walford Guide to Reference Resources praised the FEPP website for its links to resources on freedom of expression and censorship. FEPP has been characterized by the Austin American-Statesman as a think tank devoted to researching the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Denver Post described the organization as a censorship watchdog organization, and a separate article from the same newspaper called it a left-of-center politically aligned group, which advocated for both intellectual freedom and artistic freedom.