Library Director in Tennessee Fired for Refusing to Move Gender-Themed Books; The New York Times, April 2, 2026

Emily Cochrane and Sonia A. Rao, The New York Times ; Library Director in Tennessee Fired for Refusing to Move Gender-Themed Books

The director, Luanne James, was fired at a board meeting for the Rutherford County Library System on Monday after she refused to move certain books to the adult section.

"It is still an uncertain moment for Ms. James, who had taken the position believing it would be where she would finish out her career. And she remains overwhelmed by both the scrutiny and public attention, even if there is nothing she would do differently.

“I’m just a librarian,” she said. “That’s who I am.”"

Tennessee librarian fired for refusing to move LGBTQ books from children’s to adult section; The Hill, April 1, 2026

LEXI LONAS COCHRAN, The Hill; Tennessee librarian fired for refusing to move LGBTQ books from children’s to adult section

"The Rutherford County Library Board in Tennessee fired its top librarian for refusing to move LBGTQ books out of the children’s section.  

The board voted 8-3 Monday to fire library system director Luanne James after she said she would not move more than 100 LGBTQ books from the children to the adult’s section, The Associated Press reported."

Judge rules Trump order eliminating NPR, PBS funding is unconstitutional; The Washington Post, March 31, 2026

Scott Nover , The Washington Post; Judge rules Trump order eliminating NPR, PBS funding is unconstitutional

Trump’s order violated the First Amendment rights of the public media giants, a federal judge in Washington found.

"A federal judge in Washington struck down part of President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on Tuesday, ruling that it was unconstitutional retaliation that violated their press freedom rights under the First Amendment.

The May 1, 2025, executive order, titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” cut off funding to public media — with Trump calling out what he perceived as left-wing bias in NPR’s and PBS’s news reporting.

“The message is clear,” U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, a Barack Obama appointee to the federal bench, wrote in an opinion. “NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news.” He added that the action amounted to “viewpoint discrimination.”"

I broke up with my Kindle. My new e-reader treats me better.; The Washington Post, March 31, 2026

Michael J. Coren, The Washington Post; I broke up with my Kindle. My new e-reader treats me better.

After Amazon’s Kindle removed my ability to download and back up my own e-books, I went in search of an alternative.

"As corporate walled gardens have replaced the freewheeling, open internet of the 1990s and 2000s, we’ve ceded control over almost everything about our online experience. Nearly every keystroke, swipe and tap is now monitored, recorded and analyzed for potential profit.

The Kindle ecosystem is perhaps the apotheosis of this shift. One Guardian reporter found Amazon had recorded every title, highlight and page turn on her Kindle app (40,000 entries over two years). The company’s dominance sets the terms for everyone in the marketplace.

Including me. Like tens of millions of others, I have owned a Kindle (a Paperwhite). Last year, it started to feel as if it owned me. The final straw was when Kindle removed my ability to download and back up my own e-books. So I went in search of an alternative.

I bought a Kobo.

Was it the bibliophile Eden some Kobo fans described? Not quite. The reality was messier than I expected. It turns out we can’t escape Big Brother on our e-readers just yet. But a more open society is coming into view for book lovers — and perhaps all of us.

Here’s how to turn the page."

Where Censored Words Find a Safe Haven: Inside Minecraft; The New York Times, March 11, 2026

Will Bahr, The New York Times; Where Censored Words Find a Safe Haven: Inside Minecraft

"I’m standing in the middle of a cavernous hall, watching the Statue of Liberty drown in a pool of her own tears. Twin blue streams run from her emerald eyes, collecting in a reservoir that submerges the statue up to her waist.

A series of lecterns line an observation deck beneath this tableau. Each displays a divisive text: Stephen Colbert’s interview with a Senate candidate that he said CBS barred from television; a report on sea-level rise that was scrubbed from government websites in President Trump’s second term; a two-volume interactive timeline of the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol.

On the far wall, flanked by torches, is a mural of Ann Telnaes’s rejected cartoon for The Washington Post, featuring tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg bending the knee to Trump, offering up bags of cash. Hanging just above is an enormous American flag, stars and stripes rendered in pixel.

Welcome to the new United States wing of the Uncensored Library, an unlikely stronghold of online press freedom within Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time."

The Rules of Law: How librarians can help patrons with legal questions; American Libraries, March 2, 2026

 Elyse H. Fox, American Libraries; The Rules of Law: How librarians can help patrons with legal questions

"Librarians are used to being generalists, able to research all kinds of questions. But when someone seeks help filling out a form or understanding their rights, those same staffers may be wary of crossing the line from legal reference to unauthorized practice of law. Moreover, public library collections often have few legal resources for patrons.

Within these limitations, though, library workers can develop their legal reference skills and provide appropriate referrals. The American Association of Law Libraries’ (AALL) 2014 report Law Libraries and Access to Justice offers tips for how to do this. In the decade since this report was released, demand for services has remained high, with many low-income Americans unable to get adequate help for their civil legal problems. Here are some takeaways from the report—and my 40 years in law librarianship—that are still relevant in bridging the justice gap."

America's Newspapers emphasizes importance of protecting publishers’ intellectual property; Editor & Publisher, March 25, 2026

 Staff | America's Newspapers , Editor & Publisher; America's Newspapers emphasizes importance of protecting publishers’ intellectual property

"America’s Newspapers has issued the following statement in response to the comprehensive national legislative framework on artificial intelligence released by the Trump administration...

Specifically, the framework affirms that the creative works and unique identities of American innovators, creators and publishers must be respected in the age of AI. At the same time, it recognizes that artificial intelligence systems require access to information to learn and improve, and proposes a balanced approach that both enables innovation and safeguards the rights of content creators.

“America’s Newspapers strongly supports the administration’s recognition that high-quality journalism and original content are essential to the continued strength of our democracy and economy,” said Matt McMillan, chair of America’s Newspapers and CEO of Press Publications."

After losing in court, the Pentagon moves to restrict press access again; CNN, March 23, 2026

 Brian Stelter, CNN; After losing in court, the Pentagon moves to restrict press access again

"Undeterred by a federal judge’s recent rebuke, the Pentagon has announced another set of restrictions on the press corps that regularly covers the US military.

The changes will further reduce day-to-day press access, ultimately eroding the public’s understanding of what the military is doing.

Under the new rules, announced Monday, the “Correspondents’ Corridor” inside the Pentagon building — where journalists have worked for decades — has been shut down. The Pentagon says replacement workspace will be set up at a faraway “annex” location at some point.

Some longtime Pentagon reporters immediately suggested that the changes were retaliatory, coming three days after The New York Times won a permanent injunction against an earlier set of Pentagon restrictions. In that order, senior US District Judge Paul Friedman said the Pentagon had violated the First Amendment."

SHELLEY’S ‘FRANKENSTEIN’ GETS AN AI REBOOT AT PASADENA’S HASTINGS BRANCH LIBRARY; Pasadena Now, March 15, 2026

Pasadena Now; SHELLEY’S ‘FRANKENSTEIN’ GETS AN AI REBOOT AT PASADENA’S HASTINGS BRANCH LIBRARY

A discussion today ties the 1818 novel's warnings about creator responsibility to contemporary debates over artificial intelligence, part of the city's One City, One Story program 

"Two centuries before algorithms began analyzing people’s dreams and predicting their crimes, Mary Shelley wrote a novel about a scientist who built something he could not control. That novel, “Frankenstein,” is the subject of a free discussion today at Hastings Branch Library, where presenter Rosemary Choate will connect its 207-year-old themes to the same questions about artificial intelligence that Pasadena’s citywide reading program is exploring all month.

The event, titled “Frankenstein: Myths and the Real Story?” is part of the Pasadena Public Library’s 24th annual One City, One Story program, which this year selected Laila Lalami’s “The Dream Hotel” — a dystopian novel about a woman detained because an algorithm, fed by data from her dreams, deemed her a future criminal. The library has organized a month of lectures, films and book discussions around the novel’s themes of surveillance, technology and freedom, and the Frankenstein session draws a direct line between Shelley’s 1818 tale and the anxieties at the center of Lalami’s story.

Choate, a comparative literature and humanities instructor and founder of the Pomona College Alumni Book Club, will lead the discussion at 3 p.m. She will examine themes including creator responsibility, the consequences of unchecked technological ambition and society’s rejection of the “creation” — questions the library’s event description calls “highly relevant to contemporary debates surrounding the development and governance of AI,” according to the Pasadena Public Library’s event listing.

Shelley published “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” anonymously in 1818, when she was 20 years old. The novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who assembles a creature from dead body parts and recoils from what he has made. The creature, abandoned by its creator, becomes violent as it fails to find acceptance. The novel is widely considered one of the first works of science fiction.

The One City, One Story program, now in its 24th year, selects a single book each year for citywide reading and discussion. A 19-member committee of community volunteers, led by Senior Librarian Christine Reeder, chose “The Dream Hotel” for its exploration of surveillance, freedom and the reach of technology into private life. The program is sponsored by The Friends of the Pasadena Public Library and the Pasadena Literary Alliance.

The month of events culminates in a conversation with Lalami and Pasadena Public Library Director Tim McDonald on Saturday, March 21, at 2 p.m. at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd. That event is also free and open to the public."

Cascade of A.I. Fakes About War With Iran Causes Chaos Online; The New York Times, March 13, 2026

 Stuart A. Thompson and Alexander Cardia, The New York Times; Cascade of A.I. Fakes About War With Iran Causes Chaos Online

"A torrent of fake videos and images generated by artificial intelligence have overrun social networks during the first weeks of the war in Iran.

The videos — showing huge explosions that never happened, decimated city streets that were never attacked or troops protesting the war who do not exist — have added a chaotic and confusing layer to the conflict online.

The New York Times identified over 110 unique A.I.-generated images and videos from the past two weeks about the war in the Middle East. The fakes covered every aspect of the fighting: They falsely depicted screaming Israelis cowering as explosions ripped through Tel Aviv, Iranians mourning their dead and American military vessels bombarded with missiles and torpedoes.

Collectively, they were seen millions of times online through networks like X, TikTok and Facebook, and countless more times within private messaging apps popular in the region and around the world."

Politicians Are Trying to Control the News; The New York Times, March 5, 2026

The Editorial Board, The New York Times ; Politicians Are Trying to Control the News

"The shadow of press repression is spreading around the world. In the past decade, the number of journalists detained and imprisoned has soared as governments seek tighter control over the media. What started as a crackdown first by dictatorships and then by illiberal democracies is expanding to onetime bastions of civil liberties.

A recent high-profile case is Jimmy Lai, whom authorities in Hong Kong sentenced to 20 years in prison last month. He had campaigned against China’s choking of the territory’s freedoms. Mr. Lai, 78, has already spent five years in a dark cell and is ailing. The sentence effectively condemns him to dying in prison. Mr. Lai has denied all the charges against him.

His plight is increasingly common. At least 330 journalists worldwide were in prison at the end of 2025, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, up from fewer than 200 a decade ago. More than a third of them were serving sentences of five years or more. Nearly half remained behind bars despite never having been formally sentenced. One-fifth say they were tortured or beaten. An additional 129 members of the press died while doing their jobs or because of them, the highest number since records began in 1992. Among the worst offenders against press freedom have been China, Russia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Israel, Myanmar, Sudan and Turkey.

These courageous journalists have sought to shine a light on the world around them. They ask questions that political leaders do not want to answer and publish information that leaders do not want the public to know. For their efforts, they have been falsely accused of being enemies of the state, terrorists, foreign agents or spies."

Exploring the Library of Congress’ National Screening Room: A vast collection of free online films; WTOP News, March 3, 2026

 Matt Kaufax |, WTOP News ; Exploring the Library of Congress’ National Screening Room: A vast collection of free online films

"The National Screening Room is an online project of the Library of Congress, spearheaded by the audiovisual conservation operation happening at the library’s Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia.

If you click around the website, you’ll find it has a little bit of everything.

You might find classic cartoons like a 1936 short of “Popeye” next to a cut of the Claymation movie “Peter Cottontail” from 1971. Or you’ll stumble upon color footage of World War II from 1945, next to a tape of a Rolling Stones performance from the 1960s. Then, one more scroll of your mouse leads you to an episode of “The Danny Kaye Show” from 1965."

Pickens Co. library board fires director without explanation after sweeping policy overhaul; The Post and Courier Greenville, February 25, 2026

 Spencer Donovan, The Post and Courier Greenville; Pickens Co. library board fires director without explanation after sweeping policy overhaul

 "Trustees of the Pickens County Library System voted to remove the library’s director with no explanation after nearly two hours of private discussion.

The move comes after library staff were directed by the board to review more than 86,000 books in the children’s and teen sections, an effort that is expected to last a year. The library canceled a slew of events and stopped interlibrary loans to reassign staff members’ time for the review.

Policy changes in Pickens follow recent fights over the types of books accessible at local libraries nationwide. Many of the debates have surrounded access to books that touch on themes about LGBTQ identity or racism.

During a special called meeting the evening of Feb. 24, the library’s board of trustees voted 5-2 to terminate Executive Director Stephanie Howard effective immediately. Howard, a Pickens County native, started in her role in 2019...

Howard holds a Master of Library Science degree from the University of South Carolina and has more than two decades of library management experience.

In 2025, she was given the Intellectual Freedom Award by the South Carolina Library Association. The annual award “recognizes members of our community who have contributed to an awareness of intellectual freedom and censorship issues in South Carolina libraries,” the SCLA description states."

‘We’re losing accessibility’: America says goodbye to the mass-market paperback; The Guardian, February 24, 2026

David Smith, The Guardian ; ‘We’re losing accessibility’: America says goodbye to the mass-market paperback

[Kip Currier: Since 2020, I've taught a "required core course" for the graduate students in the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. The course is LIS 2040: The Information Professional in Communities. I posted the note (copied below) for my students, with the excerpt from a 2/24/26 Guardian article about the decline of access to mass market paperback books, as accessibility and breaking down barriers are key thematic topics in the course.

My 2025 Bloomsbury book Ethics, Information, and Technology has a chapter on Access. Accessibility -- in its various manifestations -- is a recurring issue throughout the book's other chapters, such as those exploring ethical issues of Intellectual Freedom, Intellectual Property, Open Movements and Traditional Knowledge, Social Media, Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies, and more.]

[Kip Currier: The most important take-away in my LIS 2040 course is how we as information professionals (and in our capacities as individuals in our personal lives, too) can help to break down barriers that individuals and communities face. This Guardian article on the demise of the mass market paperback Links to an external site.implicates the ability of people to access information and has a whole host of ramifications, like affordability of books, literacy rates, and platforms for diverse authors and genres.

In the second half of the term, we'll be thinking extensively about ways that we can all work to mitigate and break down barriers of many kinds.]

[Excerpt]

"The so-called ‘pocket book’ sold in supermarkets is being phased out across the US, the latest sign of an ongoing shift in how people are choosing to read

Shelly Romero has early memories of going to her local supermarket and picking pulp fiction off the shelves. “We were very working class; my mom was working two jobs sometimes,” she recalls. “The appeal of books being cheaper and smaller and able to be carried around was definitely a thing.”

For generations of readers, the gateway to literature was not a hushed library or a polished hardback but a wire spinner rack in a supermarket, pharmacy or railway station. There, amid chewing gum and cigarettes, sat the mass-market paperback: squat, roughly 4in by 7in and cheap enough to be bought on a whim.

But the era of the “pocket book” is drawing to a close. ReaderLink, the biggest book distributor in the US, announced recently that it would stop distributing mass-market paperbacks. The decision follows years of plummeting sales, from 131m units in 2004 to 21m in 2024, and marks the end of a format that once democratised reading for the working class...

"They had that democratic aspect to them where you can just find them anywhere and it always felt like it was the pick ‘n’ mix candy-type store where there is something here for everyone, whether it’s the Harlequin romance novel or something very pulpy like a sci-fi or horror novel that you could quickly get.”...

“We’re definitely losing accessibility and that’s a huge thing right now, especially in this country, whether it’s libraries being defunded, book bannings happening, one person saying let’s get rid of 200 books because I don’t want my child to read diverse authors."

Food delivery robot goes rogue, causes property damage at L.A. home; KTLA5, February 22, 2026

Josh DuBose, KTLA5; Food delivery robot goes rogue, causes property damage at L.A. home

[Kip Currier: This news story highlights the kinds of negative consequences that can occur from delivery robots, also called Personal Delivery Devices (PDDs) in communities. My 2025 book Ethics, Information, and Technology examines the pros and cons of deploying PDDs to courier an array of items, such as a pilot program in Pittsburgh in which robots delivered books from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP).]

[Excerpt]

"“We’ve got the Cocos, the Waymos and they’re coming for us,” Henson said, laughing.  

What concerns Reel, Henson and others is that this was not the first time there have been problems with food delivery robots. In a separate incident, a Coco robot was caught on camera running into an ambulance, while robot from another company was seen knocking over a parked motorcycle.  

Even more problematic was the time one of the autonomous robots came to an abrupt stop in front of man using a mobility scooter.  

“I think the part that worries me is that these companies can come in and dump their technology in our community and there’s no sense of accountability,” Reel said. “It just feels like an accident waiting to happen.”  

The East Hollywood resident said she’s now documenting all the robots in her neighborhood and that after reaching out to the company that runs the Coco robots, she’s going to get reimbursed for her garden, with a company official telling her that internal measures will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again."

The secret Afghan women’s book club defying the Taliban to read Orwell; The Guardian, February 19, 2026

Azada Raha, from Rukhshana Media, The Guardian; The secret Afghan women’s book club defying the Taliban to read Orwell

"Most of the books the five women have discussed since they started the reading circle last June are classics, and most deal with issues of power, suffering, and the place of women, though they have embraced variety. The works they’ve read include George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Zoya Pirzad’s I’ll Turn Off the Lights and Symphony of the Dead, also by Abbas Maroufi.

Most of the books can be found online and downloaded free, although occasionally they borrow books from libraries.

They meet every week for an hour-and-a-half at the home of one of the members, varying the location to avoid scrutiny in a country where women’s freedoms have been severely curtailed."

Trump administration is erasing history and science at national parks, lawsuit argues; AP, February 17, 2026

MATTHEW DALY, AP; Trump administration is erasing history and science at national parks, lawsuit argues

"Conservation and historical organizations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over National Park Service policies that the groups say erase history and science from America’s national parks. 

A lawsuit filed in Boston says orders by President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change. 

Separately, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and historic preservationists sued the park service Tuesday for removing a rainbow Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument, the New York site that commemorates a foundational moment in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. 

The changes at exhibits came in response to a Trump executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks. It directed the Interior Department to ensure those sites do not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Burgum later directed removal of “improper partisan ideology” from museums, monuments, landmarks and other public exhibits under federal control...

The suit was filed by a coalition that includes the National Parks Conservation Association, American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers and Union of Concerned Scientists. It comes as a federal judge on Monday ordered that an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at his former home in Philadelphia."

Stephen Colbert says CBS lawyers pulled James Talarico interview as early voting begins in Texas; AP, February 17, 2026

MEG KINNARD, JIM VERTUNO AND JOHN HANNA, AP; Stephen Colbert says CBS lawyers pulled James Talarico interview as early voting begins in Texas

"Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.

The issue came just hours before early voting opened Tuesday in Texas’ primary elections, which feature hotly contested Senate nomination races in both parties. 

“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said on his program, ”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”"

Judge invokes George Orwell’s ‘1984’ in ordering restoration of Philadelphia slavery exhibit; The Hill, February 16, 2026

 ZACH SCHONFELD, The Hill; Judge invokes George Orwell’s ‘1984’ in ordering restoration of Philadelphia slavery exhibit 

"A federal judge ordered the National Park Service to restore exhibits about slaves who lived at the nation’s one-time executive mansion in Philadelphia, agreeing with the city that the Trump administration likely unlawfully removed the displays. 

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe invoked the dystopian novel “1984” as she blocked the Trump administration from changing or damaging the site, which is now an outdoor exhibition.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not,” Rufe wrote. 

Rufe is an appointee of former President George W. Bush."

The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling; The Guardian, February 13, 2026

Editorial,The Guardian; The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling

[Kip Currier: This is the "money quote" for me in this persuasive Guardian Editorial on supporting the BBC World Service:

Accurate journalism is the strongest weapon in the war of information.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/13/the-guardian-view-on-the-bbc-world-service-this-is-london-calling]

With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported

"The programmes will neither be very interesting nor very good,” said the then BBC director general John Reith, when he launched its Empire Service in December 1932. Nearly a century later, the BBC World Service, as it is now known, broadcasts in 43 languages, reaches 313 million people a week and is one of the UK’s most influential cultural assets. It is also a lifeline for millions. “Perhaps Britain’s greatest gift to the world” in the 20th century, as Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, once put it.

But this week Tim Davie, the corporation’s director general, announced that the World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Most of its £400m budget comes from the licence fee, although the Foreign Office – which funded it entirely until 2014 – contributed £137m in the last year. The funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.

Meanwhile, Russia and China are pouring billions into state-run media. And American news organisations are crumbling under the Trump administration. Last week the Washington Post axed 300 jobs including its Ukraine reporter, and hundreds were lost at Voice of America, the closest US equivalent to the BBC, last year.

Although some question why licence-fee payers should subsidise services largely consumed abroad, it is also loved by many at home. In the small hours, it is a window on a dark world, an alternative to doomscrolling and a pushback against parochialism. Jeremy Paxman summed it up when he compared the World Service to a cords- and cardigan-wearing “ageing uncle who’s seen it all. It has a style that makes understatement seem like flamboyance”. But we should not allow this cosy, slightly fusty image to obscure its purpose.

For many it is not just life-enhancing, but life‑saving. Last month, during the internet blackout in Iran, the BBC’s Persian service provided additional radio programmes over shortwave and medium wave. Emergency services were also launched in response to conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Gaza and Sudan, and after the earthquake in Myanmar. It remains the only international news organisation still broadcasting inside Afghanistan, setting up an education programme for Afghan children in 2024.

But it has been beleaguered by cuts, closures and job losses. In 2022, radio broadcasts in 10 languages including Arabic, Persian, Chinese and Bengali were replaced by digital services, a decision criticised for disproportionately affecting women, who rely most on radios. Wherever the BBC has been forced to withdraw – for financial or political pressures – propaganda has been quick to fill the gap.

No one doubts the World Service’s value as an instrument of soft power. But, as BBC bosses argue, it is also part of our national security. Accurate journalism is the strongest weapon in the war of information. The World Service must not be allowed to stumble into decline. Mr Davie is right – if optimistic – to urge the government to back it decisively and urgently.

During the second world war, radio was “scattering human voices into the darkness of Europe”, Penelope Fitzgerald wrote in her 1980 novel Human Voices, based on her time working for the BBC. Amid the AI noise and disinformation, the World Service must be enabled to keep scattering human voices in our own dark times."