Free-speech zone policies have come under fire at two universities this spring, and national civil rights organizations including The Rutherford Institute and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education are taking notice.
\n\n The Rutherford Institute filed a complaint against West Virginia University in federal court on behalf of students at the school, claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated.
While student journalists across the country struggle to retain their right to freedom of expression, some are receiving additional help from the most unlikely of places.
Red tape is not what is standing in their way. On college and university campuses, the thick black lines that redact key crime details on campus security reports are the newest information barrier for student journalists.
\n\n Whether it is legitimate confusion about federal reporting procedures or intentional omission to preserve the image of the school, reporters are finding that institutions of higher education are reluctant to release campus crime information to journalists.
\n\n Editors of the Branding Iron are considering suing the University of Wyoming for withholding the details of two on-campus sexual assaults.
\n\n The staff is seeking the release of locations and witness names under the state open-records law after limited information was released on April 5.
NORTH CAROLINA ' The press is often referred to as the Fourth Estate, separate from government and a watchdog for the benefit of readers.
Joe Wilbur, executive editor of The Carolinian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, says school officials are obstructing the guardian role the newspaper plays.
Wilbur said if the college has its way, the paper will return to the role it used to play ' that of a public relations tool.
WASHINGTON ' The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of a boy expelled in 1998 for writing a poem about killing numerous classmates.
Three judges of the U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C. ' In a ruling that could mean easier access to campus crime information, the U.S.
FLORIDA ' Prior approval will no longer be the norm for speech on the Miami-Dade Community College campus.
FLORIDA -- A former Killian High School student has decided not to appeal a March ruling by the U.S.
OHIO ' The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on July 27 upheld an injunction sought by the U.S.
Many hard-working newspaper staffs across the country see their product disappear, literally, every year.