Banned stories of corruption, oppressive governments, and the extremes of censorship all lie within this Minecraft world. It’s called the Uncensored Library, and it houses articles from Russia, Vietnam, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

 “Minecraft wouldn’t come to mind when thinking about freedom of press, but with the Uncensored Library it makes perfect sense,” said RCMS eighth-grader Cooper Young. “Using a children’s game to read the banned works of journalists from around the world is a great way to break free and exploit the system.”

The Uncensored Library is a place for journalists that have been censored by their governments to release their work. As of April, five countries–Russia, Vietnam, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Egypt–have articles in the library, mostly critical of their governments. The library also includes a Press Freedom index displaying the level of journalistic freedom in various countries rating them from 1-180. 

The world was created by Reporters Without Borders, a nonprofit organization to protect the right to freedom of information in association with BlockWorks, DDB Berlin, and MediaMonks, and released March 12, 2020, on the World Day Against Cyber Censorship with the hashtag “TRUTHFINDSAWAY.”

The world contains five rooms, one for each country, with an additional Covid-19 room dedicated to news each containing articles from journalists in Minecraft books with each room having an art installation describing the country’s view on journalism. For example, the Vietnam room contains a maze depicting that it is practically a maze to get actual news in Vietnam.

“Journalistic censorship is putting a limit on freedom of press,” said Young, “and in turn freedom of speech.”

Freedom of press is a big part of the library, as that is how the whole server was started, but still, all of these countries have not released these works by themselves, leaving it to the library. Visit the website for the uncensored library at www.uncensoredlibrary.com.