But student press advocates say they are concerned that NEOLA’s cookie cutter method of drafting policies diminishes local input and that the policies’ vague language leads to confusion that can have severe consequences for students’ First Amendment rights.
Tag: Fall 2006
Dropping names
Although it may at times be difficult to sort out, Kulenych said that Jonathan Law High School’s policy against publishing students’ last names and pictures online is designed to protect students from Internet predators. Administrators adopted the policy for the newspaper after it launched its site in 2004. Kulenych said some of his journalism students were at first confused and disappointed, but they have since accepted the policy.
Censoring MySpeech
But some experts worry that the free speech benefits of online social networking are getting lost in the debate over Internet safety.
Adviser out of a job despite national support, student protest
Since November, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the American Association of University Professors have come out in support of Fischler, asking the college to reinstate him. College Media Advisers has censured the college and Dolphin staff halted publication in protest of the administrators’ decision.
New Georgia law opens crime records at private colleges; Massachusetts legislation falls short
By Whitney McFerron, SPLC staff writer
GEORGIA -- Gaining access to campus crime records has often been an arduous task for journalists at private colleges and universities, but some states are taking steps to make all campus police departments subject to open records laws.On the last day of its session this year, the Georgia Legislature passed a bill that will provide journalists in the state with all new access to crime records at private colleges and universities, student press advocates say.
Libel and privacy in brief
Student paper faces $800,000 defamation lawsuitVIRGINIA -- A student newspaper is being sued for $800,000 on allegations that the paper published defamatory statements last year about a rape victim.
California Dreaming
Student journalists in California have long enjoyed extensive free press protections. And if the state Legislature has its way, those freedoms may be expanded even more.
Ask & receive?
These three words — designated public forum — have become important in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Hosty v. Carter case. The Supreme Court’s refusal lets stand a decision out of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that could give public college administrators more ability to censor student media.
Archiving the past: One man helps preserve student press history
Behrens’ job, as he would energetically tell you, is to serve as curator of the Student Press Archives at Utica College in Utica, N.Y. Behrens described the archives as “four large containers” that reside in the Frank E. Gannett Memorial Library at the college, but he quickly warned that looks can be deceiving.
Help the SPLC defend student journalists for many years to come
Since 1974, the Student Press Law Center has been the only national organization exclusively devoted to providing free legal advice to student journalists and advisers and serving as an advocate for their free press and freedom of information rights. Please help the SPLC defend young journalists for years to come.