Imagine that an institution was instituting swingeing cuts (say, 250 jobs), cutting modules and degree courses, generally making staff unhappy, reducing classroom contact time and increasing class sizes. Then try to imagine how students might feel about all that.
Now put yourself in the chair of the student newspaper's editor (print run 250). You might feel that this is a news story. After all, it's been in the local paper, the regional papers and the Times Higher Educational Supplement, as well as on regional television.
Next, imagine that you're a university official. Do you tell the editor:
a) we respect the freedom of the press. Publish away.
b) we value students' opinions. Let's see what they think.
c) we disagree with you, but the students' union is the independent voice of the student body so we can't stop you
or
d) if you publish any of this, we'll take disciplinary action and possibly legal action against you.
I edited my union paper for a while. Many of the students' union officers strongly objected to what I printed. One accused me of working for MI5 (I'd cancelled the star-signs thing, whatever it's called), others printed a special edition rubbishing my claims (I've since been proved right). Once or twice, pressure was applied by the university when they didn't want embarrassing stories covered, but not once did anyone ever threaten my academic career, or consult lawyers.
Any thoughts?
update: The Union Newspaper...
7 comments:
I would resign immediately, and I trust the editor will do so.
I sent an email showing an interest in this (which wasn't replied too). I know what I'd be doing. Journalistic and creative control is essential. It's all about dignity.
Don’t the powers that be realize the effect that the threats of redundancy are having on staff and students? The staff and students are human beings for God’s sake, not androids.
People are frightened and angry. They should have a right to express this in a democracy. It is a very worrying development that students are being threatened for expressing a reaction to this. Let’s hope that a lot of people see this blog and the national press gets hold of this story.
Disgusting. Publish and be damned (it's the best place to go anyway).
The problem with quitting as I wish is the team that I set up possess an incredible keenness even considering the censorship and if I quit I'd be leaving them in the lurch as they are primarily marketing, layouts and techno guys . I only became editor to voice the collective student opinion, take polls and interview those concerned, make a stand for what I believe is right. Strangely, I do not even possess any journalistic ambition and I only write for various magazines and papers to get into the habit of writing in my own style eloquently and freely. As I said to Vole, I'm deflated especially considering the plans I had to make this paper a profitable and interesting read within the tight budget.
The fight shall go on!
How about doing a special issue?
1 page (and thus a bigger print run) with the masthead, a big 'censored' stamp across the vast expanse of virgin white, then a link at the bottom to a special blog page linking to all the news stories, information about freedom of speech, and an explanation.
That sounds like a wonderful plan and I did suggest just publishing every three months but the news would be slightly dated and surprise, surprise this was also against the wishes of Management.
What I'll do is, within my student’s art exhibition feature I'll tell one of the third years to create an image similar to the situation of a man with his hands tied, mouth covered and beaten. Then distinctly, write the blog title someplace and Crywolf on his fists as a symbolic sign of defiance.
Post a Comment