The below update appeared in the Dec. 19, 2024, edition of the Student Press Law Center’s newsletter. To receive future student press freedom updates like this one, subscribe here.
The Columbia Journalism Review asked the question this month, “Should a Student Reporter Face Prosecution for Embedding with Protesters?” In the piece, Stanford Daily reporter Dilan Gohill spoke publicly for the first time about his arrest in June while covering an occupation of the Stanford president’s office. The prosecutor still hasn’t officially pursued or declined the felony charges against Gohill, and Stanford disciplinary proceedings are also pending.
CJR details the hours leading up to Gohill’s arrest and examines the difficult position in which Gohill found himself to report the story. Gohill, for his part, said that while it was “super traumatic,” he wouldn’t change what happened.
“We haven’t seen a protest like this on campus in years. The fact that our own students are getting arrested on campus—there needs to be eyes on that. And I think that me being there provided context that we wouldn’t have had if I’d stayed outside,” he said.
The renewed attention on Gohill’s case has prompted more people to examine how Stanford has handled the case. An editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education wrote, “If ever there were a case for forbearance, this is it.”
Several Daily alumni sent a scathing letter to the university last week, calling on it to publicly withdraw its support of Gohill’s prosecution, apologize and launch an independent investigation into Gohill’s treatment.
Perhaps seeking to distance himself from the situation, Stanford’s new president told the Daily, in an interview published this weekend, that the university took no position on Gohill’s prosecution and discipline. That’s despite, in the same interview, also endorsing the June statement by the previous president and current provost, which said the university “fully support[s] having him be criminally prosecuted.”
SPLC’s take: It’s beyond disappointing that Gohill still faces so much uncertainty for documenting history. In June, SPLC and the First Amendment Coalition — along with 24 other free speech and press groups — urged the district attorney “to avoid expending significant resources prosecuting a young journalist who was acting in good faith to serve the public’s interest in timely coverage of newsworthy events.”
As the alumni wrote last week, “It has now been half a year since the arrest, and for months Stanford has had information to justify dropping the disciplinary charges entirely and informing the District Attorney that it had no complaint against Dilan. Putting Dilan under threat and leaving him in limbo amounted to unconscionable punishment-by-delay….”
Related: Students make up 21% of arrested or detained journalists in 2024
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, of which SPLC is a partner, found that arrests of journalists surged in 2024 amid Israel-Gaza war protests. Student journalists played an essential role in covering these protests, and that is sadly reflected in the Tracker’s statistics.
Of the 48 incidents the Tracker identified as of Dec. 18 of journalists being arrested or detained this year, 10 were student journalists (including Gohill).
To learn more about your legal rights and expert tips on safely covering protests, view SPLC’s resources here.
The Student Press Law Center (splc.org) is a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes, supports and defends the First Amendment and free press rights of student journalists. Operating since 1974, SPLC provides information, training and legal assistance at no charge to high school and college student journalists and the educators who work with them. SPLC also supports the grassroots, student-led New Voices movement, which seeks to protect student press freedom through state laws.