Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

First Amendment rights of campus newspapers under fire
By James McMahon
Source: UWIRE
May 05, 2009

University administrators and employees took action in several recent incidents prompting renewed concern among student journalists and First Amendment lawyers.

The possible infringments against collegiate media outlets include removing unfavorable coverage, suspending publication and requesting journalists aid in a possible prosecution.

In two instances, university-affiliated employees have removed newspapers from racks to hide damaging headlines. Recently staff at the Boston University admissions office were accused of hiding copies of The Daily Free Press displaying headlines about BU medical student and accused “Craigslist Killer” Philip Markoff —a move that many speculate was meant to hide the story from prospective students.

Posts on Facebook claimed that this isn’t the first time admissions-office staff has removed papers. The Daily Free Press published an editorial condemning the act, arguing that it is “ridiculous for BU to think that news of Philip Markoff’s arraignment or suspension is somehow going to deter prospective students from attending BU.”

“BU’s decision to censor anything negative about the university from prospective students can only backfire,” the editorial says. “The presence of a daily independent newspaper on campus can be, and should be, a big draw for students who are considering attending BU.”

A similar issue arose at MIT in March when two university police officers admitted to recycling 300 copies of university newspaper The Tech on the day the publication featured a prominent headline about the arrest of a campus police officer on drug charges. MIT fired one of the officers.

According to Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, people would never remove copies of commercial papers like The Boston Globe and The New York Times from racks, but they tend to be more bold when it comes to campus papers. Nevertheless, he said it’s often a crime and should be prosecuted as such, and even if the act is legal, it violates the spirit of the First Amendment.

“If it’s an issue or subject matter that somebody finds distasteful, they may well be within their rights to remove it from their view—the first amendment doesn’t say anything about forcing people to read a newspaper,” Policinski said. “But I think it’s probably a fool’s errand to think that you’re going to keep that news from certain groups or prospective students.”

Questions regarding university influence over campus press have arisen in other places as well—editors at Cedars, Cedarville University’s newspaper, decided to suspend publication after the Baptist school’s administration tried to shut out liberal bias in the paper.

And when riots broke out at the University of Minnesota April 25, university officials asked for photographs taken by Minnesota Daily staff so they could identify and possibly prosecute individuals involved in the riot. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota Daily Editor-in-Chief Vadim Lavrusik refused to supply the photos, saying that doing so would have “repercussions on students and potentially their education at the university, and that’s not something that news organizations do.”

According to Policinski, Lavrusik probably made the right choice, as it’s usually not a good idea to “make a major journalistic enterprise part of a prosecutorial approach.”

“I think that’s a dangerous thing to start out on,” he said, “And I think it’s a gross misuse of the press to turn it into just another investigative tool of the administration or the police.“

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