Recently, many newspapers have been shut down, raided, or censored according to the Student Press Law Center. Freedom of press laws protect the rights of reporting news and circulating opinions without government censorship. The shutting down and censoring of these newspapers breaks the freedom granted by these laws, and for this reason should not be happening. One example of this was in Marion, Kansas.
On Monday, Aug. 11, a raid was conducted by authorities on the Marion County Record, a local newspaper in Marion. The raid was conducted after an accusation that Phyllis Zorn, a reporter on the newspaper, committed identity theft on a local restaurant owner. Zorn was actually accessing public records on the restaurant owner’s previous DUI, not committing identity theft.
The police involved in the raid seized computers and phones from both the building and the house of the owner of the newspaper, Eric Meyer, despite the fact that the police chief, Gideon Cody, did not have the legal documents required to raid the building. This introduces quite a few issues for newspapers around the United States. The first amendment protects the right of freedom of speech and press and is clearly being broken in the context of the Kansas newspaper raid. If even the amendments that make up the premises of our country are not upheld, it is all too easy for other laws to be ignored, leading to a potential uptick in reporters being censored or shut down.
Over the years, there have been a few school newspapers shut down by admin and district authorities around the United States. In late 2022, Northwest High School in Grand Island Nebraska had its newspaper shut down by the district due to an article about LGBTQ+ rights in their pride month issue. This article was shut down for no reason other than that the district administrators did not like the topic and found it “inappropriate”, according to NPR. This is hardly a valid reason to shut down an article, much less a whole newspaper program.
In April 2022 at Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas, one of the Editors-in-Chief of the school newspaper wrote an editorial about the increased number of canine searches on students’ vehicles, causing an environment of fear among the students. Legally, the editorial was not disruptive, but the school tried to censor it because of how unflattering the article was to their reputation. Later it was allowed to be published, though the author had to make admin-suggested changes. This is another classic example of oppressing the opinion and critical thinking of students for the sake of maintaining a good name. If students are not able to express their concerns in a supposedly safe environment like school, then what does that teach them about society? Banning newspaper articles only leads to students learning that if they want to be accepted, they have to sit down, be quiet, and agree with the most favorable opinion without thought.
Although all of these issues were resolved, the mentioned events raise problems for all newspapers. These issues show that people of higher authority, like police chiefs and district officials, are not afraid to censor and shut down newspapers, even if it is unconstitutional, and especially if the articles in question are unflattering.
As a member of The Liberator, the fact that districts have the ability to censor or shut down our newspaper if it were to write something not in their favor makes me question my freedom as an academic journalist. Not only should I, and The Liberator team, be able to freely express our opinions in a professional manner, but so should everyone. We should not be debating a constitutional right.
