Another school censoring a newspaper

I find it troubling when institutions of higher learning, especially those that are government funded, take it upon themselves to strip students of their Constitutional rights.

The latest example comes from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. An article by the Student Press Law Center states that school officials have recently implemented a prior review policy for the school newspaper.

As I read further in the article, it mentioned the reason behind the new policy was to cut down on grammatical and spelling mistakes in the paper. Any journalist would be quite naive to believe that one.

If your not going to allow students the opportunity to put the skills they learn in journalism courses why offer journalism classes in the first place?

Carlos Fandel, the dean of the College for Arts and Science, ordered the new policy, according to the SPLC article.

You can call him at 318-342-1750 or e-mail at fandal@ulm.edu.

Don't critize Syracuse U or else....

Syracuse University recently punished several students for publishing material on a Web site criticizing an instructor, according to an article by the Student Press Law Center. The material was published on Facebook.com, a online site that allows student to share information with students from other institutions.

I find this troubling that a university that receives so much of our tax dollars is punishing students for their opinions. In the 2005 fiscal year, the university was award $58 million for research and teaching programs including $46.2 million from the federal government and $8.2 million from New York state, according to their Web site.

Although I believe the student's comments were disgusting, they should have the right to voice them.

If the words that come out of University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill's mouth are not censored then why should a few students who have negative opinions about their professor be punished.

If you feel the urge to comment on the matter, I'm sure Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor would love to hear from you. After all, they value free speech. Her email address is ncantor@syu.edu and her phone number is 315-443-2235.

CPJ's Attack on the Press 2005

The Committee to Protect Journalists released it's annual study today highlighting press freedom, or the lack there of, around the world. Fourty-eight journalists were killed in 2005 and 125 were imprisoned world-wide, according to the report. China leads the way with 32 jailed reporters followed by 24 in Cuba.

First post

Hello everyone. This is my first blog since joining the Shelby Star team. This is my first week on the job as the new government and courts reporter at the Star. Previously, I covered municipal government, economic development and business for the News-Topic in Lenoir. I am a news junkie and advocate for investigative and computer assisted reporting. So, not surprisingly, most of my blogging will focus on journalism related subjects. For some good reading, check out Derek Willis' weblog on computer assited reporting. Derek was my CAR instructor in college and is currently the Database Editor for the Washington Post.