College newspapers may lose free speech
Is college going to be more like high school?
Some young college journalists’ lives may have been changed because of a recent court ruling on administration censorship.
However, this change is not only going to affect aspiring journalists, but college students as a whole.
This situation has evolved from a censorship incident at Governors State College in Illinois.
According the Student Press Law Center, “Governors State University was sued by student journalists Margaret Hosty, Jeni Porche and Steven Barba in January 2001 after Dean Patricia Carter told the newspaper’s printer in October 2000 to hold future issues until a school official had given approval to the student newspaper’s contents. The paper, the “Innovator,” had published news stories and editorials critical of the administration.”
Governors State’s previous policy had been that the newspaper staff alone was responsible for the content of the newspaper.
In the June 2005 court case Hosty vs. Carter, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled in favor of Carter, saying that college newspapers could be subjected to the same censorship as high school newspapers under the 1988 Hazelwood court case.
Although the decision only applies to colleges in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, this could soon affect most college newspapers around the nation because the case may go to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices are supposed to announce by mid-February if they will hear the case.
The situation of this censorship case is tragic. With the ruling in Hazelwood, the students in high schools fell under prior review by principals if their publication was not a public forum.
This is the same concept that is now threatening college papers through prior review by administrators.
An article in the “Milwaukee Journal Sentinel” points out the impact this court case has on college students in the three affected states and might eventually have on all students: “All subsidized college activities involving student speech, such as groups that bring speakers to campus, are subject to censorship unless they can prove they are a public forum, a place or publication for free expression.”
When a student enters college, he or she is suddenly faced with many challenges that are very different from previous experiences in high school. Most high school students are not faced with the responsibilities that college students have to face.
For example, students who enter college have to develop skills for study and research; they are faced with making decisions and examining their priorities. Most students in college are over 18 and are considered adults; they have the ability to vote, so why can’t they have the ability to speak their voice?
Here at the “Six Mile Post,” this threat of censorship has never been a problem. Our administration recognizes the “Six Mile Post” as a public forum in which students have the right to speak freely and has always been very supportive toward the journalism staff.
It’s just upsetting to see that although this situation is not happening here, it is happening to aspiring journalists and affecting students in other universities and colleges.
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