Freedom of Speech Victory for Community Colleges

Teresa Wilson

Photo Editor

Student writers for California colleges and university publications can rest a little easier when it comes to article content. The days of censorship by school administration have abruptly come to an end. AB 2581, dubbed the College Press Freedom Bill, has been signed into law, allowing college journalist students the same protection as their professional counterparts.

“This is a great day for scholastic journalism in this state. Student journalists at California’s colleges and universities will no longer have to worry about looking over their shoulders when gathering and reporting the news,” said James Ewert, Legal Counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA).

“We have never exercised any sort of censorship. We try to teach a professional approach to journalism with certain ethical standards,” said Gary Lewis, president of Shasta College. “On the other hand, we don’t want to provide a license to necessarily have some sort of x-rated rag. We want something the school can be proud of,” he added.

While journalism students at Shasta College have never been subject to administrative censorship, Lassen Community College (LCC) has. Richard Swanson, faculty adviser and journalism instructor for The Cougar said prior restraint from administration was never exercised until an article was written about an instructor’s classroom behavior. President Homer Cissell of LCC felt the article needed prior review as its contents may have been potentially libelous.

If libel is the reason, Swanson conceded, “this then is a sad example among many recently of how libel suits have turned gun-shy a once robust free press.”

The final directive from LCC administration was to pull the article from the publication pending legal counsel.

“The upshot of an incident like this is that the ethical and legal issues students address in the classroom obtain a real-world immediacy,” Swanson said.

In the landmark case Hosty v. Carter, student journalists at Governor’s University in Illinois challenged the school’s new policy, which required students to submit articles for review prior to publication. This policy was enacted following a series of articles published in The Innovator, which scrutinized administrative practices. A group of student journalists who were subject to this form of censorship stated their First Amendment rights were being violated, disputed the new policy and filed suit. The case was brought before the District Court, which ruled in favor of the students. However, the decision was reversed by the Seventh Court of Appeals.

The only existing law that referred to administrative censorship in public schools was the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier case that was brought before the Supreme Court in 1987. The final ruling directed K-12 publications be subject to a lower First Amendment right, but the law did not directly include the college press.

Not only have students been stripped of their right to free speech in the press, but journalism advisers have been forced to abstain from direct involvement in student-run newspapers. Since advisers are on the college payroll, any controversial articles written under their direction could bring disciplinary action from administration.

The CNPA Legislative Bulletin reported that, “in his signing message, [Gov.] Schwarzenegger said, ‘freedom of speech is the cornerstone of our democracy. Students working on college newspapers deserve the same rights afforded to every other student journalist.’”

AB 2581 removes the restraint of potential censorship by administrative faculty who may wish to prohibit controversial articles from being printed for personal or political reasons. Now student journalists can embellish the educational arena without the guise of impending censorship to fine-tune their craft.

AB 2581 was authored by Assembly Speaker Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) in response to the Hosty v. Carter ruling. Yee proposed to amend Education Code 66301, which provided First Amendment protection to speech, but not to the college press.

Advocates of AB 2581, Yee and his proponent, Assemblyman Joe Nation (D-Marin), have succeeded in making California the first state to implement a law protecting student journalists in post-secondary institutions. Unanimously supported by the California State Assembly with a vote of 76-0 which passed in May this year, AB 2581 received the State Senate’s approval with a majority vote of 31-2. The only remaining hurdle was Gov. Schwarzenegger’s signature.

College students have significant amount of leeway when it comes to content, but remain accountable for any libelous, slanderous or obscene comments printed in college newspapers. The bill officially becomes law on January 1, 2007.