Current Status: New Voices legislation has not yet been introduced during the 2023 legislative session.
In 2021, SB 1300 was introduced by Senator Jeff Yarbro on Feb. 11, 2021. The bill applied only to higher education, and did not receive a committee hearing.
Shortcuts:
• Get involved
• Why Tennessee needs New Voices
• Endorsements
• Recent news
Get involved
- Contact your state legislators to let them know why this bill 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.
- Refine your thoughts with talking points, a printable flyer and other resources here.
- Get looped in with volunteer coordinators to let them know about your efforts and learn about other ways to get involved:
- Hillary Davis, hdavis@splc.org
- Enlist all your friends in Tennessee 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.
- If you are a student or adviser who was censored, intimidated or retaliated against, contact SPLC’s legal hotline.
Why Tennessee needs New Voices
- OPINION: Student journalism pops the campus bubble. Here’s how you can protect it. The Tennessean. (2-23-23)
- Principal censors newspaper over articles on birth control, tattoos Student Press Law Center (11-29-05)
- Tenn. school censors student’s atheism editorial, says it would be distracting Student Press Law Center (2-24-12)
- Tenn. adviser removed after yearbook publishes profile of gay student Student Press Law Center (5-29-12)
- Tenn. student resigns from college newspaper, claims censorship in suspension from social media use Student Press Law Center (11-6-14)
- After being punished with a funding cut after an investigative story runs in Memphis, pressure from SPLC helps get money restored Student Press Law Center (11-18-15)
- Rediscovering my voice: How high school censorship shaped my journalism experience FIRE (6-27-19)
Endorsements
You can see the list of national endorsers at the bottom of this page.