Last week, the Indiana Daily Student, Indiana University’s student run newspaper, was told by university officials to cease its printing production following its refusal to agree to administrative censorship. The university took issue with IDS continuing to report the news in certain “special editions” of the paper, which it hoped to see center around unifying campus events like Homecoming weekend. This print ban came alongside the firing of the student media director, who had refused administrative orders pressuring the newspaper to stop publishing news articles.
This mandated termination of printing comes after a series of events which created tensions between the newspaper and the university. In June, the university decided to deny the IDS a funding boost which students had voted to support, following a typical biannual review process. Instead, it cut their printing schedule to only every other week, down from their weekly schedule in the past academic year. Still, the school asked for specific extra “special editions” for significant campus events, which the IDS agreed to produce. However, the school wanted no news reported in these editions. This content-based restriction would be antithetical to the role of a student newspaper as an independent voice of student speech, and generally the role of newspaper to report the news, so the IDS would not agree. As such, the university fired the professional advisor of the newspaper and ended its entire print edition.
It claimed this was for budgetary reasons, citing past newspaper monetary losses. However, this point falls short given previously mentioned contentions where the university denied them extra funding students were willing to give. Additionally, as editors for IDS pointed out in a statement, cutting the print production against the will of the organization can only serve to worsen its economic situation. They ask how they are supposed to make deals with sponsors and donors when they cannot even ensure the proper independent operations of their own organization.
The Daily Campus Editorial Board condemns in the strongest terms this blatant university overreach and silencing of the free press. As student journalists at the University of Connecticut, we are deeply concerned that a fellow public university would take such a drastic step to prevent factual reporting of the news. This action goes against the most basic principles of our democracy and the values that our universities are supposed to stand for. It is entirely hypocritical that Indiana University would claim such “core values” of discovery and the search for truth, diversity of ideas, respect for the dignity of others and academic freedom, while simultaneously undermining them by censoring student press.
The role of student media on campus is not to serve institutional comfort or appease administration leadership, but rather to speak truth to power. It is to inform the people of what they have a right to know and help bring forth their voice when they face injustice. This often places student journalists against those in power, and a necessary part of their job is holding administration leadership accountable. These basic tenets are non-negotiable and only serve to strengthen our communities.
As such, we will add our voice to many other student publications who have called upon Indiana University to reverse this decision. We stand in solidarity with the struggle of the IDS and call upon other student publications to speak out on this issue as well. Attacks against the student press are sweeping the nation, from Stanford to Indiana to New York City, and each one, no matter how far, is a threat upon our freedoms as well.
Furthermore, we encourage all the viewers, alumni and community members from Storrs to Bloomington to continue supporting local student media. Your engagement, viewership and support is crucial to our continued ability to do this job, deliver the news and strengthen our communities across the country.