A panel of Mark Goodman, California state Senator Leland Yee, legal consultant Mike Hiestand and California Newspaper Association representative Jim Ewert talks about what should be in any prospective state legislation. Photo by Glynnis Siegfried.

Protecting press freedom

ITEMS DISCUSSED:
• Best practices tool kit for presenting legal and ethical value of free student expression; Involve commercial media by finding a way to help publishers/editors think beyond the 24-hour news process

• Civics education is a strong way to address protecting press freedom

• Work with admins in training them to better understand scholastic press laws and educational values

• Be careful of wording in legislation; Colorado wording “interfere with classroom learning” sometimes been used to work against teachers and for control, when that was not part of the legislation or its intent

• Prepare a source of information for administrators in advance, not only on state laws but also on journalistic principles

• Tie into the responsibility angles JEA's Scholastic Press Rights Commission develops; also into other projects where students practice responsible and thorough journalism

• Educate people about who is the publisher of scholastic media and what is the process

• Use grassroots movement to get students involved…..social networking is important to make initial contacts

Develop a Web site rich in materials for school administrators

• Important things to have in any legislation:
-- award of attorney fees must be a sting….increase the consequences; anti-retaliation portion, too..for adviser, student and publication
-- Model legislation (like splc model)
-- Address high school and collegiate legislation together
-- Knowing when it is time to do legislation is crucial
-- Working with lobbyist/expert is a must
-- Getting student protection before adviser/teacher one is a must
-- Send principals a letter that includes the bill itself to encourage them to understand what is going on
-- Allies: faculty associations, teacher unions, unions, student orgs, ACLU; working journalists on board of scholastic press associations
-- How do we respond to our opponents: Seattle Times opposition was a strong negative; anticipating your opponents; meet with them upfront
-- Keep arguments in exec summary?
-- Talking point relevant to each supporting ground. Understand your supporters and what will tweak them. Don’t add things in….keep legislation clean.
-- Lobbying primer: focus your message (top 2 items) Role play opposition and how to answer them; talk to person writing the bill…get his involvement with you
-- Must have compelling examples of the need for legislation

• Where to go from here:
• --target audiences for how to fight censorship (rural, etc.)
• --pull together highlights and discussion
• --everyone’s ideas they can
• --ideas from NAAF piece…..
• --empower kids to see what they would do…..get them involved
• --admin attitudes sharpened against rights….WHY??
• -- sep. code sections for high school and college
• --research to test the waters
• --should bills be drafted to address the off-campus speech***
• --Lobbying: how much can they do? What is lobbying? Who can?
  
  
• What can we do not explicitly tied to lobbying?
• --collect and publish, fine-tune info to others
• --education and information
• --demystifying the process
• --sign off on a statement of belief of a free student press
• --statement of principles then reach out to get others to sign also
• --mentorship program on legal issues and how it affects content; could include admins?  Could be commercial or academic

 

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