Preserving a Free Campus Press

It is an uncertain time for journalists, and a particularly precarious one for the first amendment. But in the face of weighty issues, such as protecting journalists’ right to keep sources confidential or the ability of the press to expose certain government secrets, smaller-seeming assaults can get lost. The right of college journalists to print without fear of administrative censorship, which has been corroded by courts in recent years, is such an issue.

Due to Supreme Court precedent set 19 years ago in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, public high school and middle school media are currently only entitled to full first amendment protection if they are established as “public forums” for student expression. A recent decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals extended the Hazelwood decision to public colleges as well. That ruling was extremely troubling in its failure to see a clear distinction between a high school and college environment—in the latter, there is a far greater need for strong, independent press, a greater emphasis on the freedom and diversity of ideas, and a greater capacity for responsibility among journalists.

The College Campus Press Act—an Illinois state bill ensuring that college media at public universities is not subject to review by their administrations—addresses this troubling new standard. The Illinois Senate unanimously passed the bill last month, and it now awaits a vote by the House.

We hope that more states emulate Illinois. In this era of eroding journalistic prerogative, there is more need than ever to keep alive strong traditions of independent college journalism. Paternalistic and censorial college administrators, whether in Illinois or at the University of Southern California, where last year the student election of the Daily Trojan’s editor in chief was blocked by administrators, or elsewhere, will only sap the abilities and sense of responsibility of budding reporters.

The Illinois bill protects the central principle of college journalism, indeed all journalism: thorough and unbiased coverage. Newspapers which print in fear of administrative reproach cannot effectively do their job. To subject a newspaper to administration review is to undermine the ability of student reporters to thoroughly and critically provide an invaluable service to their communities: to discern and disseminate the truth. Though it might well be argued that student journalists still in high school lack the maturity or responsibility that they must have in order to run their newspapers without oversight, college students are adults in the eyes of the law and should be treated as such.

That being said, we hope that student-journalists do not take the weighty responsibility that comes with independence lightly. The press, including college media, has long provided an invaluable resource for the communities it has served. But only unfettered can newspapers be valuable as such; censorship, or even the possibility thereof, has no place on the college campus.