The Student Press Law Center is excited to welcome Melissa Melewsky to the team this fall as SPLC’s first legal director. She brings with her 20 years of experience as media law counsel at the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. In that role, she worked with journalists and newsrooms across the state, providing counsel and pre-publication review.
As she brings that experience to support the nation’s student journalists, we sat down to get to know her a little better. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Right now, with everything that’s going on in this country, what makes press freedom so important, and specifically student press freedom?
It’s called the fourth estate for a reason, right? We only have a functioning democracy because we have checks and balances on it. One of the significant — and I think the most significant — check and balance on the other three branches of government is a free and unfettered press. You can’t have a functioning democracy without a free and unfettered press.
As we’ve seen the professional news media environment contract, it’s created gaps in some communities where that press freedom, that democratic institution is 100% necessary, but it’s not being covered by a professional news organization because they’re still trying to figure out how to make it work from a financial perspective. One of the great things that we have across this nation is a whole network of student-run press organizations that live and work and exist in the communities that they service, and they can fill that gap. Student press freedom and supporting student journalists can help support democracy more broadly because they’re filling a gap in many communities where they need it.
You’ve got this extensive background in media law, so what drew you to the Student Press Law Center’s mission?
Melissa Melewsky: As an attorney in this area, you understand that it’s a very small but very mighty bar. There aren’t a lot of lawyers that can say they get to be media law attorneys in the world, it’s just not a common thing. So when you see an opportunity like the one that was with SPLC pop up, I had to think to myself, “Does that sound right for me at this stage of my career?” And it did, and it’s all worked out really well.
But the thing that attracted me most is that, in my prior job, I was limited to one state, but I was looking for an opportunity to expand the world of people that I could help. The fact that I could speak to journalists not just from Pennsylvania, but from across the nation was a big selling point. Obviously, SPLC’s stellar reputation amongst the media law bar and the nation at large was another big selling point. The opportunity to both do what I love and find very rewarding on a larger scale was really what attracted me most to SPLC.
In your new role as legal director, is there anything that you’re really hoping to accomplish?
I’ve thought about that a lot. I think SPLC runs like a very well-oiled machine, so I’m not trying to throw any wrenches into the works. I would like to see that well-oiled machine expand and bring its services to more student journalism organizations, because we know we only reach a certain percentage of the folks who need our help. I would love to be able to get our message out to make sure that every student journalism organization knows that there is a free resource that’s been around for 50 years that’s there just waiting to help them. I think that’s one of the things that I’d like: to scale up and expand our universe of students and educators we support.
In a similar vein, is there anything that you’re really excited for about this position?
Just in the past four weeks, I have met so many enthusiastic people who really understand the importance of journalism, the importance of student journalism, the importance of a properly functioning democratic universe. I’ve been really excited about joining those efforts on a nationwide basis, and I’ve been extremely impressed with the students that I’ve met.
That’s really exciting to see as well because you get this narrative from the world writ large, you hear about, “Oh Gen Z or Gen Alpha, they come with their issues.” I’m not seeing that. It is very refreshing, and I think very enlightening, and I think everybody would benefit from seeing all the great work that’s being done by these students across the nation.
How did you originally end up in the media law sector?
I have a degree from Penn State in telecommunications. So I took the journalism classes. I took mass communications. I took media law. That was all part of my undergraduate curriculum. I knew right away that I was not meant to be a journalist. I’m not brave enough to do what journalists do. I’m not putting a microphone in somebody’s face at a public meeting or asking hard questions at a scrum. That’s not me. But what I did do in college that felt good to me — it felt rewarding — was helping journalists.
I worked at an editing lab, so they would come to me and say, “How can I do this? How can I do that?” That felt really good. I knew I wasn’t done after college; I just didn’t feel finished. I knew I didn’t want to pursue medicine, and the other option that seemed really interesting to me was law school. So I took a practice LSAT, and it went well, so I did law school, and clerked for a judge and passed the bar and all those good things. And I saw an ad in my local newspaper for media law counsel, and it sounded a lot like what I did in college — helping the journalism students and helping the communication students — and I thought, “Well, that would be interesting.” I went and I met these wonderful people at the Pennsylvania News Media Association, and they gave me a job. I spent 20 years there learning the business and learning to love helping journalists do their work and holding power to account. It’s incredibly rewarding to give journalists the tools they need to do their important work.
After working for so long with professional journalists, how will that knowledge and experience change how you’re approaching working with students now?
I don’t really see that it’s a lot different. The questions that I’m seeing from the journalists are very similar, if not exactly the same, to what I see from journalists who are working in a professional newsroom. They’re all operating under the same First Amendment concepts, the same public records laws, the same public meetings laws. They’re all getting the same pushback from public officials.
What’s different is the extra layer students deal with. There are student-specific laws, and students are often up against their own school. They’re doing the same work under the same set of laws, but often with a lot less protection. That’s where SPLC comes in.
Do you have any fun facts to share about yourself?
I’m from a small town. I’m a first-generation college graduate. I married my high school sweetheart, who was also a first-generation college graduate from the same small town. We have four kids. We’re happy. We both have rewarding careers.
This is obviously one of my favorite jobs, but I’ve had so many jobs in my lifetime. I started at 15, I babysat as a teenager. My first job, I worked at a billiard hall, so I play pool really well. I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts in high school. I’m really great at decorating in icing; I’m not so great at putting coffee together.
I’ve worked in factories. I was a roadie in college. If an artist was touring between ’95 and ’99, more than likely, I was backstage at their concert, loading them in and out of their shows at Penn State while I was there as a local crew member. I’ve got a massive collection of backstage passes and local crew T-shirts from every artist that toured between ’95 and ’99 it seems.
Is there anything else you want to share?
I have found both my prior job and this one to be one of the most rewarding things I’ve done as a professional. One of my goals as a human being is to leave the world a better place for my kids, and I think this is a spectacular way for me to do that. It’s incredibly rewarding, and I’m so happy to be a part of it. And I think there are only good things to come.
The Student Press Law Center is the nation’s only legal organization devoted exclusively to defending and advancing the free press rights of student journalists. Since 1974, we have helped students and their educators navigate the law, strengthen their reporting and stand up for press freedom. Our legal support, education and advocacy empower student journalists to report freely and courageously. Stay updated by subscribing at splc.org/newsletter.