Student Journalists, Adviser Take on University Censorship

A statue of World War II correspondent and alumnus Ernie Pyle in front of the building that houses student media at Indiana University Bloomington, including the Indiana Daily Student. Photo: Lfische7 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

WatchDog Opinion: Student Journalists, Adviser Take on University Censorship

By Joseph A. Davis

Students have a lot to teach us when it comes to standing up for a free press. The lesson: It works.

In Indiana, they protested loudly. They sought allies. They published anyway. They sued. They won.

On Oct. 14, Indiana University Bloomington cut the print edition of the Indiana Daily Student and fired its faculty adviser. The student newspaper had published for 158 years.

The paper’s co-editors, Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller, published an editorial (a “letter from the editors”) online the next day protesting.

“Telling us what we can and cannot print is unlawful censorship,” the two wrote.

 

What would Ernie Pyle think?

Outside the Media School’s Franklin Hall, a metal statue of an iconic journalist, Ernie Pyle, sat at a typewriter, writing. Pyle, a Pulitzer winner, died covering Okinawa in World War II.

What happened next was inspiring, as the Bloomington Herald Times reported it. “On Friday afternoon, students and staff from Purdue's student paper, The Exponent, traveled two hours from West Lafayette to Bloomington to do what the Indiana Daily Student couldn’t: deliver a paper to newsstands.” Some called it the solidarity edition.

 

They wanted students to print only

special-event issues full of ads:

no news content in print.

 

The confrontation had been brewing for a while. University administrators claimed it was about money — the cost of the print edition. They would allow news content in the online edition. But they wanted students to print only special-event issues full of ads: no news content in print.

They also fired Jim Rodenbush, director of student media, apparently for unwillingness to fall in line with the administration’s plan.

Rodenbush filed a lawsuit Oct. 30 against the university for his firing. In his suit, Rodenbush charged his firing violated the First Amendment. He sought monetary damages and reinstatement.

The fired adviser claimed the university fired him "in a direct assault on the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment" — and because he "refused the directive to censor student work."

That suit remains pending.

But by Oct. 30, the university seemed to change course. We know this because of a letter published in the Indiana Daily Student. Published in full.

“First and foremost, let me reaffirm that our commitment to a free and independent student press has never wavered,” wrote Chancellor David Reingold. ”More than a publication, the IDS represents a public trust and a cornerstone of Indiana University’s educational mission. For generations, it has embodied the ideals of free inquiry, open debate, and journalistic rigor.”

So much for now.

 

Widespread opposition won against censorship

What turned the Indiana University administration around was the protest and outrage from many quarters.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in a letter, announced that it was representing the IDS editors. RCFP lawyer Kristopher L. Cundiff wrote: “As a public university, IU is bound by the dictates of the First Amendment, which preclude the government from engaging in viewpoint and content discrimination or retaliation for engaging in protected speech.”

Also stepping up was the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which also condemned the university’s violation of press freedom. But there was a special irony. In September, the IDS had reported that FIRE had ranked Indiana University as the “the worst public university for free speech.” The university was not pleased.

 

We were especially impressed

that the papers in the state

covered the whole story

extensively and in detail.

 

Many others stood up, including the Student Press Law Center. We were especially impressed that the papers in the state, like the Indianapolis Star, the Bloomington Herald-Times and the Valparaiso News, covered the whole story extensively and in detail.

A whole bunch of student publications at other colleges and universities also protested. And, the WatchDog is pleased to report, quite a few national media paid attention to the story as well. Among them: The Washington Post, The New York Times (may require subscription) and NPR.

Of course, the outrage shouldn’t settle until Rodenbush gets his job back.

But already WatchDog concludes that one of the absolute best ways to strengthen and preserve press freedom is for a whole phalanx of news media to stand together and support it.

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 42. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.