A student newspaper is censored, restricting the constitutionally-granted right to freedom of the press. Illustration by Audrey Kennedy
The current climate of distrust and hostility towards the media in the U.S. threatens our First Amendment right to the freedom of speech.
Nearly two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press is under fire.
In a July 15 Twitter post, President Trump tweeted, “Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems……know how to do is resist and obstruct!”
The media is not the enemy of the people — its job is to inform the people. With a president who attacks journalists, it is more important than ever to fight for our First Amendment right to freedom of the press and our right to be informed.
The attack on the press is not limited to professional media outlets. There have been cases of censorship of student press this year, as well.
According to the Burlington Free Press, Burlington High School journalism students published a breaking news story on Sept. 10 about a school guidance director being charged with six charges of unprofessional conduct.
By mid-morning the next day, their story was removed from the publication’s website because BHS Interim Principal Noel Green said the post “created a hostile working environment” for the guidance director.
Cases of the censorship of student press are nothing new.
In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that a Missouri school district had acted lawfully in removing a two-page spread about divorce and teenage pregnancy from a student newspaper. This case, titled Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, gave high school administrators grounds to censor the work of student journalists.
The issue of student press censorship hits close to home for Leanne Tippett Mosby, Director of Career and Alumni Services at the University of Missouri, who was a student in the journalism program at Hazelwood East High School at the time of the case.
“We got the newspaper back and it was just two pages long, and our immediate thought was that the printer made a mistake because they were used to publishing just a four-page paper,” Tippett Mosby said.
When Tippett Mosby and her classmates faced this level of censorship, they took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The students hoped that they would win their case with substantiation from Tinker vs. Des Moines, a 1965 Supreme Court Case, which ruled that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasoning for restricting students’ freedom of speech.
However, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the principal’s decision to prohibit the publication of certain articles did not obstruct the First Amendment right of the students.
Thirty years later, Tippet Mosby believes that the verdict of the case weakened students’ rights.
“I didn’t agree with the Court’s decision. I felt it went way too far in restricting student journalism, and I felt that the Tinker case struck the right balance,” Mosby said.
As a student journalist, I know the hard work that goes into seeking fairness, accuracy and balance in reporting. Sure, fake news exists, but that’s all more the reason to support journalists having opportunities to do their jobs, even when it’s unpopular or uncomfortable.
The BHS journalism students ultimately won their battle for the freedom of speech, and were allowed to repost their breaking news story, and even managed to change their school’s policy on media, according to The Boston Globe.
Though news consumers should demand good reporting from journalists, they should also defend our right to the freedom of the press. It is not the job of anyone — the president or high school administration — to censor or fight against those who seek out the truth every day for a better-informed public.
