In the opening days of the new year, bills were introduced in Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey and New York, with holdover bills reactivated in Minnesota and Washington.
The Torch, the award-winning student newspaper at St. John’s University in Queens, New York is using crowdfunding to pay off debts rather than give up its decades-long status as an independent publication.
A New York legislator, inspired by visiting a hometown high-school newsroom, proposes legislation to protect the independence of student journalists. But consideration is unlikely until 2018, with the legislative session winding down for the year.
The New York Senate passed a bill last month that would ban funding for student groups which encourage hate speech.
The City University of New York’s proposed freedom of expression policy has been stalled by the Board of Trustees after members of the community, professors and students raised censorship concerns.
The City University of New York is considering a freedom of expression policy that establishes restrictions on demonstrations and at one time included what opponents called “free speech zones”.
As New Yorkers took to the streets Wednesday in solidarity with demonstrators in Baltimore, who have been protesting Freddie Gray’s death after he was injured in police custody, student photojournalist Sam Bearzi became a part of the story.
The stories were fake — part of The Record’s annual April Fools’ Day issue — but outrage over the issue was not. Shortly after the special edition — called The Wreckard — hit stands Wednesday, the student government’s executive vice president froze funding to the student publication.
A disorderly conduct charge against a student journalist, who was arrested while covering a protest over the non-indictment of police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Gardner, could be dropped if she does not get in trouble again before July.
A journalism student at the City University of New York faces a disorderly conduct charge after police arrested her Wednesday night at a protest over a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the choking death of Eric Garner.