Lawmakers wrongly believe bill gives students ‘carte blanche to do anything they want’
Legislation that protects student journalists and their advisers from censorship and retaliation is not a partisan issue. It was pioneered in red states and later caught on in blue states.
But sometimes even strong bipartisan support can’t overcome the questionable concerns of top elected leaders, including Arizona’s Republican governor, who vetoed one of these “New Voices” bills a year ago on the theory that censorship is just another word for “adult supervision.”
The latest state to decide that public schools and colleges should be allowed to continue censoring and retaliating against students and journalism advisers is Missouri.
For the third year in a row, according to the Student Press Law Center, a Republican-sponsored New Voices bill passed the House and a Senate committee but failed to get a full Senate vote before the session ended Friday.
It wasn’t enough that student journalists and educators testified for the bill – this version named after journalism icon Walter Cronkite – earlier this year:
The bill showed initial promise in 2018 after easily clearing the House in February and passing the Senate Education Committee in April.
MORE: Washington state finally protects student journalists
[Sponsoring Rep. Kevin] Corlew, already worried it would stall in the Senate, added it as an amendment to education bill SB 743, hoping that would improve the odds of passing it. But legislators later stripped it off the education bill.
Missouri Press Association Executive Director Mark Maassen said he plans to meet with opposing senators before the next session to explain that the bill will simply bring “normal, typical, journalistic principles to a student newspaper,” not give students “carte blanche to do anything they want,” such as libel.
Similar bills have already failed this year in Nebraska, South Dakota and Indiana, but 26 years of effort by now-retired journalism teacher Fern Valentine finally brought student press rights across the finish line in Washington state in March, according to SPLC.
MORE: Missouri student journalists testify for anti-censorship bill
IMAGE: NOBUHIRO ASADA/Shutterstock
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