SPLC addresses JEA’s prior review, restraint definitions
The Student Press Law Center, in its May 4 blog, put JEA’s newly adopted definitions of prior review and prior restraint into legal and educational perspective.
“If a school official insists on reading a student publication ahead of time, they will eventually try to censor it,” SPLC consultant Mike Hiestand wrote. “I would like someone to prove me wrong on this, but I’ve never seen an established system of prior review that has ever remained a pure “reading only” practice.”
In its newly adopted guidelines, JEA created the following definitions:
• Prior review occurs when anyone not on the publication/media staff requires that he or she be allowed to read, view or approve student material before distribution, airing or publication.
• Prior restraint occurs when someone not on the publication/media staff requires pre-distribution changes to or removal of student media content.
“In the real world …” Hiestand wrote, “experienced, trained advisers that work closely with their students, offering suggestions for improvement — often after reading the content ahead of time — can be a valuable and welcome resource, something the JEA recognizes in excluding such ‘advising’ from its definition of prior review. But even advisers, the definitions recognize, can go too far, and ‘when an adviser requires pre-distribution changes over the objections of student editors,’ the definition states, ‘his/her actions then become prior restraint.'”
Check jeasprc.org soon for recommendations on how advisers can assist students without making decisions for them or requiring them to make changes they don’t want to make.
Read MoreSupport for advisers
Today I attended a conference sponsored by my state organization the Washington Journalism Education Association. Students and advisers from all over the state met to listen to speakers and, most important, share ideas and discuss problems. Your state organizations as well as JEA are invaluable sources for advisers.
In your school, you are one of a kind. No one there really understands your situation. However, advisers from other schools do and can help you. In fact they are eager to do so.
Your students can meet other young journalists at these conferences and exchange idea with someone with similar interests and problems. Advisers have the chance to connect with other advisers and get lifelines to people who understand. Believe me, you make lifelong friends as well.
Please make these connections, exchange papers and ideas with other schools and lend your expertise as well as get help from others.
State and national organizations all have web sites with important links to sources of help for you and your students.
Advising is a challenge but you don’t have to meet that challenge alone.
Fern Valentine, MJE
Avoiding Legal Problems, Step 1: Interview Notes Deadline
Student newspapers have two ways to avoid legal problems. Your students can never print anything controversial, creative or of interest to their readers, or you can teach your students how to write about controversy responsibly.
This responsibility begins long before the story is printed. Having your editors check the interview notes of the reporters can quickly reveal that the students haven’t talked to the all the right people to get a balanced story. It gives time to check out possible liability and to get permission to use quotes in place.
It also prevents procrastination, always a problem for all of us.
Students often only talk to their friends, or, worse yet, use the internet and don’t localize the story by talking to students, administrators or local sources. Brainstorming sources and questions can help get students off in the right directions.
Have your editors negotiate reasonable individual story deadlines for these notes and stick to them. Extending deadlines needs to be done ahead of time and in extreme cases only. If a student isn’t “dead” for missing a deadline, deadlines don’t mean a thing.
Interview skills are a sellable skill and one that journalism classes teach well. You might remind your administrators that, although they might prefer not to answer students’ questions about controversial topics, the students are really learning important skills that will help them in all sorts of situations throughout their lives.
Role playing interview situations with beginners can teach those skills and can be loads of fun as well.
Adding “interview notes” to the list of deadlines can help get things moving early and make sure that stories are well balanced and have the important information that will avoid legal problems when the story is published.
Fern Valentine, MJE
First Amendment issues in the news
Those interested in the latest First Amendment incidents and issues should note the following links:
• Student literary magazine recalled, then sold with permission. See first article and then the followup.
• Racial Comment in School Paper Sparks Discipline. See this article.
• Glendale Union school’s newspaper, district battle over censorship. See the article.
• Sixth Grader’s Project About Harvey Milk Censored by School. See the article.
• Secrecy 101: FERPA applied beyond intent. See the article.
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