Current Status: The Georgia legislature is in session, and advocates are seeking a New Voices bill sponsor. Join the movement by emailing the SPLC’s Advocacy and Organizing Team at newvoices@splc.org. You can also follow New Voices Georgia on Instagram.
Join the Movement
- Contact your state legislators to let them know why this legislation is important to you. Find out who your legislators are here. Not sure what to say? Check out our phone script and letter-writing tips here.
- Talk with SPLC’s New Voices Advocacy and Organizing Team (newvoices@splc.org) about ways to bring New Voices to Georgia.
Other Ways to Get Involved
- Refine your thoughts with talking points, find answers to frequently asked questions, or find other resources here.
- Locate a copy of your school district’s student media or student expression policy. This toolkit can tell you everything you need to know about your policy and what you can do with it. Some student media policies offer legal protection equal to or even exceeding New Voices protections. If that’s the case, spread the word! (And let SPLC know, too.)
- Help your colleagues better understand student press freedom by inviting an SPLC expert to join you: SPLC In The Classroom.
- Spread the word about New Voices. Enlist all your friends in Georgia to raise their voices in support of this measure, which ensures the basic First Amendment rights of student journalists and protects their advisers from retaliation.
Why Georgia needs New Voices
- OPINION: Our unfiltered, uncensored voice. The Spectator (Valdosta State University). (2-22-2023)
- Restoring Student Press Freedoms: Why Every State Needs a ‘New Voices’ Law George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal (3-5-22)
- Guest post: Five Freedoms in the First Student Press Law Center (9-25-23)
- SPLC recognizes BluePrints magazine with national award for accountability reporting on their local Georgia school board Student Press Law Center (11-19-20)
- Georgia State University pulls student-produced magazine from freshman orientation Student Press Law Center (6-28-19)
- Student journalists matter. It’s time Georgia passes the New Voices law that they deserve. Georgia Recorder (8-6-24)
Endorsements
You can see the list of national endorsers at the bottom of this page
Recent news
- Georgia becomes 7th state to introduce New Voices legislation in 2026 (4/29/2026) - Two bills introduced by the Georgia House of Representatives last month mark the first time in recent years that the state has considered legislation to protect student journalists from arbitrary censorship by school administrators.