Today is Day of Action Day
for curing 30 years of Hazelwood
The SPLC has events scheduled throughout Jan. 31 to bring attention to the negative effects of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, which gives public schools the right to censor student publications. Now, more than ever, we need a coordinated effort to protect student journalists’ rights.
Here’s how the SPLC suggests schools (and others) can speak out about the damage this case has brought:
- Speak out on Twitter and Instagram why you think student journalists deserve better than the Hazelwood standard using #CureHazelwood.
- Change your profile picture to #CureHazelwood to help support the cause.
- Tune in to Facebook Live. At the top of every hour from 10am ET through 7pm ET we’ll have 10 minute mini-broadcasts from lots of cool people talking about the impact of censorship on student journalists and the need to overturn Hazelwood. We even have Cathy Kuhlmeier Frey (the named plaintiff and brave student journalist) as one of the guests. Everyone will be broadcasting live from the SPLC Facebook Page. Make sure to like the page and follow us so you don’t miss it! (Full schedule here.)
- Check out our Hazelwood: Then and Now webinar: Hear from former SPLC directors Frank LoMonte and Mark Goodman and current senior legal counsel Mike Hiestand as they talk about what it was like when the Hazelwood decision came down and the rise of the New Voices movement in response. Tune in to our YouTube channel at 11 a.m. ET.
Two videos developed by JEA’s SPRC also talk about Hazelwood’s history and legacy.
A one minute roundup.
And a 3.5 minute explainer:
The SPRC also has the additional materials about Hazelwood:
• A Teacher’s Kit for curing Hazelwood
• Seeking to cure the Hazelwood blues
Another 45 essential words
by John Bowen, MJE
In building a journalism program around the 45 words below, no journalist should be limited by Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, which impacts society in a variety of ways, some not immediately visible.
Student journalists need:
- Truthseeking
- Truthtelling
- Accuracy
- Honesty
- Completeness
- Context
- Credibility
- Reliability
- Ethical fitness
- Independence
- Transparency
- Diversity of ideas
Student journalists need to:
- Question Authority
- Witness
- Verify
- Be role models
- Offer public forums
- Have no prior review
- Make final decisions
- Encourage empowerment
- Offer leadership
- Inspire trust
Journalists and their audiences received an unfortunate lesson in Hazelwood: governments of all types should control the spread of information. Audiences have learned not to trust the news media because they often see scholastic media limited in what it can do. The limitations are numerous.
Hazelwood’s lesson has lasted 30 years.
Starting Jan. 13, 1988, we experienced nightmares of misinformation, misguided thought control and fake news, sugar-coated as guidance, leadership and education, all through prior review and restraint.
It’s time to bring us all from the Hazelwood nightmare. It’s time to Cure Hazelwood. Censored news is fake news.
[pullquote]“Both the history and language of the First Amendment support the view that the press must be left free to publish news, whatever the source, without censorship, injunctions, or prior restraints. In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” –Justice Hugo Black[/pullquote]
To do that, we can think about, and then apply, what Justice Hugo Black wrote in the New York Times Co. v. United States (the Pentagon Papers) decision in 1971.
Black’s statement is an important part in the film The Post: “Both the history and language of the First Amendment support the view that the press must be left free to publish news, whatever the source, without censorship, injunctions, or prior restraints. In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”
Student media must be able to fulfill that role, too.
To learn about ways to fulfill that role, check out our materials on this site and especially information about the New Voices program and other Student Press Law Center Day of Action initiative.
Read MoreChanging not so great expectations
by John Bowen
People shouldn’t be surprised at what happened at University of Missouri recently involving student media trying to do their jobs and groups disagreeing with what their role is.
After all, they have seen it in their secondary schools since at least 1988.
They have only to look at the impact of various Supreme Court decisions starting with Hazelwood as a contributing cause of the problem.
Hazelwood and other decisions gave schools the ability to control student expression, to limit what questions were asked, what stories were told and whether they were told thoroughly. It is possible this contributes to access issues, too.
In some cases, students, teachers, administrators and community members have known nothing but a limited, controlled and incomplete student media. Perhaps an expectation of thorough and accurate reporting starting in high school could help improve the access issue.
If these groups do not support and advocate for free expression and journalistically responsible student media, they set the stage for later misunderstanding of media roles and obligations in a democracy.
Like actions at the University of Missouri.
It should not be surprising then that both a mass communication faculty member and a university administrator sought to control the media’s role and access during an incident when protesters wanted to bar media from a public event.
They may have known no better because of what many high school environments allow to become the expected role of journalism: lapdogs that do not challenge authority, do not seek a complete story and do not carry out their role in a democratic society.
[pullquote]They may have known no better because of what many high school environments allow to become the expected role of journalism: lapdogs that do not challenge authority, do not seek a complete story and do not carry out their role in a democratic society.[/pullquote]
We all can learn from the events at the University of Missouri. It could happen again, elsewhere, if we don’t.
We can:
• As teachers, ensure our students have access to information and principles that show the importance of free expression in student media.
• As teachers and students, apply the principles of the First Amendment to student media, in policy and practice.
• As teachers, students, administrators and community members, we can demand our states pass legislation that would guarantee student free expression, like North Dakota that just passed New Voices Act and 20-some states looking at similar legislation.
• As citizens in a democracy, we can inform ourselves about the role of media in a democracy and empower students to fulfill it in socially responsible ways.
We can, and should, in part because of the misinformed reaction to student media at the University of Missouri, act as the Student Press Law Center and the Journalism Education Association both agree: Cure Hazelwood.
Read More
Seeking to cure the Hazelwood Blues
Weighted down by the Hazelwood blues? Try these resources. #25HZLWD http://jeasprc.org/seekingcure
One way to commemorate Hazelwood’s 25th anniversary is to take steps to control its effects. Here are our recommendations for an Action Plan to begin to find a cure for Hazelwood.
Additionally, check out the SPLC’s 5 simple steps you can make sure Hazelwood never turns 50.
Below the Action Plan you will find a daily listing of links we will post to Twitter and links that go to resources to assist you and your students to support the SPLC in its efforts to find the Hazelwood Cure.
1) Educate yourself about the importance of student press freedom. Why should students make decisions?
• For advisers: JEA guidelines for advisers — specifically areas 5-9 http://jea.org/home/for-educators/model-guidelines/
• For students: http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/wheel.html (seventh item down, specifically 1.4-1.6 and 5.2-5.3)