Tennessee principal muzzles student newspaper

Student journalists in Oak Ridge, Tenn. offended their high school principal's Puritan sensibilities with a planned column on birth control options and feature article on students with tattoos, according to the Student Press Law Center.

The principal -- exercising strong-arm censorship not seen since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved -- confiscated all 1,800 copies of the Oak Leaf, student newspaper of Oak Ridge High School.

I'm not in the right mindframe to mount my weary student media soapbox, but I will use this space to renew the Independent Register's pledge to fiercely and ardently fight administrative censorship in high school and college student media.

If a student newspaper in Craven County is confiscated or has its content otherwise suppressed, the Independent Register will publish the censored content and use its resources to publicize the offending administration's trampling of student expressive rights.

We hope this will never happen, but if it does, student journalists will have a ready ally in the Indie Register.

More information: Student Press Law Center http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1136

Press freedom advocates hold their breath

In a move signaling interest in a case with vital First Amendment freedoms at stake, the U.S. Supreme Court has requested a response from an Illinois college administrator whose right to censor a student newspaper was stunningly upheld by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Students from Governors State University filed a petition for a writ of certorari; in essence, asking the nation's high court to re-hear the case. Attorneys for the university administrator waived their right to respond to the students' petition, according to the Student Press Law Center. (http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1115)

The request signals that justices may believe the petition to have some merit, according to an explanation of Supreme Court practices quoted on the SPLC's Web site.

We at the Independent Register stand in solidarity with Governors State University student journalists. We support college press freedom and hope courts interpret the First Amendment faithfully and defend it doggedly.

For more information, visit the SPLC Web site at www.splc.org.

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