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Free expression sample press release
Sample press release
Another option for letting your various communities know about the benefits of free expression legislation is to create a press release to media, civic groups, school board and others.
Rather than trying to create a cookie-cutter press release version, we thought we would create a model sample where points from our legislative package and its resources could be melded into local comments and philosophy. The outline below is only a shell to which you and students can add specific approaches and activities and principles.
Such a press release is designed to inform your communities about the legislation and its importance.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date
Contact:
Your Name
School
Phone
Email
Headline to fit your situation
Seize the day.
Make a Difference.
State legislation that promises student freedom of expression can help student journalists achieve that goal because of the educational, civic and journalistic responsibility it offers.
__________ (state name) just passed such a law and (add local information here. If in Illinois or Maryland, place a graph of two about the state legislation and effort and what it means. If attempting to pass legislation, focus on points how it will help education and civic engagement)
Information generated in student media where students practice what they have been taught, as protected by this legislation, will showcase the quality of the mission, policies and ethical guidelines of journalistically responsible students.
This legislation allows our journalism programs to train students who:
- Make all final decisions of content
- Practice civic and social responsibility
- Present complete, thorough and accurate stories in context
(Quote from adviser, state journalism or legislative officials, etc.)
As journalists and journalism educators, we will do everything we can to present stories that are accurate, complete and thorough. We will inform our news consumers in a way that is not only transparent, but also independent and without bias using multiple sources.
(Talk here about how you and your students will carry out your program using editorial policy, ethical guidelines and journalistic responsibility.)
We will engage our audiences not only in the practice of journalism, but in civic activities that make a difference. (Perhaps provide examples.)
(Another local quote…)
Journalists Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, authors of The Elements of Journalism and Blur, would put it this way: Journalism is storytelling with a purpose. That purpose is to provide people with information they need to understand the world. The first challenge is finding information that people need to live their lives. The second is to make it meaningful, relevant, and engaging.
In a time when information abounds, although not all credible, when political speeches are fact-checked regularly and multiple sources of information are necessary to make sense of news, legislation for free student expression will aid all involved.
Here are some ways how:
For more specific details and information of the importance of such legislation please go to XXXXXXX and XXXXXX
For more information…..
(signatures)
Read MoreStudent free expression resources
- Comments from an administrator on the importance of student free expression
- SPRC Foundations package (mission, policy, ethics, manual)
- JEA Adviser Code of Ethics
- Press Rights Minute
- Seeking to cure the Hazelwood Blues
- Constitution Day lessons and activities
What to do if school officials
threaten censorship after legislation
What to do if school officials threaten censorship
Even though state legislation can provide protection, sometimes others do not understand that and need further education. Use a friendly and informative approach and help them understand. Here are some steps we recommend.
- Share a copy of the law and explain the language and meanings in educational civic and legal terms and benefits to the various communities.
- Use your Talking Points, bill terminology and other supportive arguments to emphasize key points and arguments for student free expression.
- Ask challengers to state their specific arguments in writing so you can respond
- Contact SPLC, use the SPRC Panic Button for legal, ethical and educational advice and support.
- Contact the legislators who proposed the bill and seek their involvement.
- Respond to challengers’ arguments with logical and documented points and seek further time for discussion.
- Contact additional legal and educational sources for support and resources.
- Share print and online resources like New Voices Facebook pages.
- Keep the dialogue meaningful.
- Invite questioners to journalism meetings, including editorial board meetings, so they can see how student decision-making works.
If the educational approach does not seem to work, try other approaches.
- As necessary, share the story of the censorship and legislative background with local and state media. Ideally, you have already shared information and explanation about the legislation with media after it passed
- Enlist community and parental booster groups of your student media for their active intervention
Read More
State legislation provides additional protections for student expression
by Mark Goodman
Although many educators and advocates think of the First Amendment (and the court decisions interpreting it) as the most important tool for interpreting student press rights, there is another equally important source of law: state statutes.
As of September 2016, 10 state legislatures have enacted statutory protections for high school students’ free expression rights that help define the protections for and limitations on student journalists. These state laws are considered a complement to the U.S. Constitution; they provide protections that are in addition to those in the First Amendment. For that reason, school officials, teachers and student journalists must be sure that their actions comply with both the Constitution and the state law.
[pullquote]These state laws are considered a complement to the U.S. Constitution; they provide protections that are in addition to those in the First Amendment. For that reason, school officials, teachers and student journalists must be sure that their actions comply with both the Constitution and the state law.[/pullquote]
None of the 10 existing state laws are optional. Public school officials (and even private school officials in California) are legally required to follow their provisions if they are in a state where such a law exists. Thus everyone involved in scholastic journalism from the school administration down should seek a basic understanding of the specifics of their state law.
Student journalists need to understand the extent of the protections they have under state law because those protections may be greater than students in states without such statutes. Advisers and teachers need to be able to teach that information to their students in the classroom and the newsroom. Administrators need to understand that the rules their counterparts in other parts of the country follow relating to censorship of student media may not apply in their state. And communities need to know that they are part of the process as well, supporting both educators and journalists when they follow the law.
[pullquote]Everyone involved in scholastic journalism from the school administration down should seek a basic understanding of the specifics of their state law.[/pullquote]
State student free expression laws are an important way for states to define educational policy. All involved with scholastic journalism should make understanding their own state law a priority
Read MoreTips for reaching out to communities
for info on student free expression
Steps students and advisers can use to help others understand the importance and need for student and free student expression
With new legislation, or attempts to pass it, comes the need for ways to engage those who would support it. The ways can run from concept to concrete and can be delivered in many approaches with details determined locally.
- Convert or update your editorial policy so it reflects your public forum status and explain why that status is important
- Know the law in your state and have policy and practice correspond to it
- Know your school board policies and know how to bring them into line with changes in state law
- Hold a forum for your community/administrators/students to share information. Student media leaders could also invite questions and provide guidance
- Establish a strong network of alumni, parents and community members to help spread the value of free student expression and to assist you with problems
- Prepare an op-ed piece for your community media about the importance of free student media
- Maintain an active and informed voice opposing censorship wherever it occurs
- Blog what your students will do, as protected by a state free expression law, to prevent fear of irresponsible journalism. This could include discussion of media mission, policy, decisions, ethical guidelines and staff manual process
- Endorse the use of adult blogs and social media to show now that students have freedom of expression they will uphold standards of journalistic responsibility.
- Don’t self-censor. Know what to publish that is meaningful content, and how and why to do so effectively
- Empower your students, through their decision-making, to practice socially responsible journalism and to know the difference between sound and unsound journalism so they can better teach their communities
- Invite the various groups into your newsroom to see students at work
- Explain what terms like forum, etc., mean and how they will work with students making decisions
- Develop Talking Points on the educational and civic values of free student expression
- Create a press release based on a model release in this package
- Stress social responsibility across platforms in journalism: truth, accuracy , content and completeness
- Use the Panic Button to reach JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee if you need additional assistance
- Remember three additional points:
–Your credibility as student media rests not on Hazelwood and review, but on journalistically responsible, ethical and complete reporting
–Journalism is at the core of democracy. If students learn that control trumps freedom because of decisions like Hazelwood and its practices, then democracy crumbles, bit by bit
–Communities cannot be informed, or act upon the information they have if it is limited, controlled or distorted by prior review or censorship
Read More