A professor loses his job, even though his performance reviews were positive. Hiring practices are under fire at the university.
News
Media organizations highlight concerns in brief
A group of 25 media and education organizations have joined in support of student journalists at Governors State University in a case that could have profound implications for college press freedom in three Midwestern states.
\n\n The students will face the university this fall when Hosty v.
Interpretation of ‘public forum’ is crucial to case
A key issue in the Governors State University case could be whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit agrees with the university's argument that the student newspaper should be considered a ''nonpublic forum.'' In essence, the Illinois attorney general claims that The Innovator is government property that has never been open to free expression by student editors.
\n\n No court, however, has ever found a student-edited college publication to be a nonpublic or closed forum.
The Report Staff
Laurie Babinski, a Scripps Howard Foundation journalism intern, is a senior journalism and Spanish major at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
Student calls seeking legal help rise in 2001
VIRGINIA -- Requests to the Student Press Law Center in 2001 from high school and college journalists needing free help on media law matters rose slightly from 2000.
Overall, in 2001 the SPLC staff responded to 2,107 requests from individuals seeking legal help, down about 1 percent from the 2,129 calls received in 2000.
Missing a hero
The SPLC has no shortage of role models. Hundreds of student journalists who fight censorship and defend their readers' right to accurate news each year provide us an ongoing source of inspiration.
Rondray Hill was a special champion.
Researcher studying Internet filtering software challenges federal copyright law
MASSACHUSETTS -- A lawsuit filed last week involving computer researchers' rights and the dissemination of information is the latest attempt to curb the scope of the far-reaching Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
Recent Harvard University graduate Ben Edelman wants to further his research on the effectiveness of Internet filtering software by examining the products sold by the company N2H2, which holds the largest market-share of blocking technology.
Major League Baseball orders student to shut down Mets Web site
NEW YORK -- The Internet, not the baseball diamond, is the setting for Major League Baseball's latest struggle with its fans.
Court rules Fla. law restricting access to autopsy photos is constitutional
FLORIDA -- A state appeals court ruled July 12 that Florida's Earnhardt Protection Act, which restricts public access to autopsy photos, is constitutional.
The law, passed after racecar driver Dale Earnhardt's death during the Daytona 500 in February 2001, was challenged by several news organizations, including the University of Florida's Independent Florida Alligator, on grounds that it was in conflict with public information rights in the Florida Constitution.
The Florida Court of Appeals for the Fifth District in Daytona Beach ruled the right to privacy outweighed any public interest in the 33 photos, taken as backups to the assistant medical examiner's tape-recorded notes of the autopsy.
Student broadcasters fight plan to silence Wash. high school radio station
WASHINGTON -- High school students in the Seattle area may soon be seeing the day their music dies if the Federal Communications Commission allows their school-sponsored station to be pushed off the air by a more powerful commercial station.
Mercer Island High School's X104.5 FM may be forced to close its doors after KMCQ, a commercial radio station from The Dalles, Ore., that also broadcasts on the 104.5 FM frequency, filed a petition with the FCC to take over the frequency in the Seattle area.
"It was pretty much a kick in the stomach," said junior Guy Dickinson, a X104.5 station engineer.