We as student journalists are experiencing censorship and it’s sickening.
A couple of weeks ago, the Daily Trojan, the student-run newspaper at the University of Southern California, recently published an editorial expressing their refusal to back down to their administration. A Daily Trojan reporter was recently ordered by their university spokesman not to take notes during a community input meeting but allowed for publications such as the Los Angeles Times to do the opposite.
In some cases, defying the view of the administration has resulted in outright consequences. Recently, Liberty University officials in Virginia have come under fire after terminating two student editors of the Champion, their student-run newspaper.
I could go on a rant about the acts of student media censorship in 2018 alone. We can talk about Max Gordan’s fight to keep a breaking high school story afloat. We can talk about Critic Te Arohi’s retaliation after Otago University officials in New Zealand removed hundreds of copies from their campus.
I refuse to spit out a flurry of First Amendment information for an entire article. I’m fairly confident that any educated reader is aware of the rights that we share as the press. If you’re not, then I proudly introduce you to a buddy of mine — the U.S. Constitution.
As long as there is at least one university official across this nation that truly believes we are to be taken lightly, we will continue to experience attempts to silence student media.
In recent years, the media has been instrumental in informing the people of misconduct in the highest of offices. We have equipped the people with the knowledge to make crucial decisions about their leaders. The press serves as watchdogs that hold leaders responsible and student media shares the same role.
Do not allow yourself to ever be silenced. Our responsibility to the people falls no lower than that of the New York Times or the Washington Post just because we are students. We as the student press possess and have demonstrated the ability to hold officials responsible across all echelons.
The moment we give in and allow student media to die is the moment when we give up on the students that we serve — It is the point where we allow officials to exert their will on our students without consequence.
I can only speak for my outstanding staff and the editorial boards before me, but the Sentinel has stepped up to the plate to report on things that sometimes made Kennesaw State look bad. We have pulled countless open record requests that broke stories such as the resignation of former KSU President Sam Olens. We have always been dedicated to serving the populous with the information they can not get anywhere else and in many ways, we have succeeded.
Like any publication outside of our university system, we have rights to open records and open meetings. We are no one’s public relations firm. If you are uncertain about your rights, resources such as the Student Press Law Center and the Freedom of Information Act exists for your journalistic success.
You will always have to fight for your voice and nothing worth having will come easy. My question to the student press is, will you fight for your rights or allow everything the alumni before you worked for to die?
