Ban on book about Cuba 'unconstitutional'

MIAMI - The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against Miami's public school system, saying its ban on a children's book about travel to Cuba is unconstitutional.

The Miami-Dade County School Board voted to order the removal of the book, Vamos a Cuba and its English-language version A Visit to Cuba, from school libraries last week after a parent complained that it painted an overly favourable picture of life in the Communist-ruled island nation.

The ban has triggered what ACLU officials described as the first major legal battle over book censorship by a US public school system since 1982.

Outlining the group's lawsuit, which was filed in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said the book ban violated the First Amendment and openly defied a US law prohibiting censorship.

He also suggested that Vamos a Cuba had only stirred controversy because of pressure from Miami's politically powerful Cuban exile community.

The complaint against the book, filed in April, came from a self-described former political prisoner in Cuba.

"The fight for freedom in Cuba cannot be a fight against the First Amendment in Miami," Simon said.

The book is part of a series of books that covers a total of 20 countries in English and four in Spanish.

- REUTERS