The New Voices Act (Senate Bill 764) passed the Maryland Senate with amendments in a 36-10 vote on March 18 and has been moved to the House Ways and Means Committee. This new bill proposes extending rights of freedom of the press to high school and college student media.
Originally introduced by Democratic Senators Jamie Raskin and Jim Rosapepe on Feb. 5, the anti-censorship legislation seeks to protect student journalist and advisor rights in school-sponsored publications, regardless of whether the institution is financially backing the media. Student journalists of school-sponsored publications currently do not have any additional protections against censorship guaranteed by Maryland state law.
Should the bill be passed, it would allow student editors to determine the news, opinions, features and advertising of their publications, granted the content is not libelous, in violation of state and federal law or an invasion of privacy, without oversight by school executives.
Lead bill sponsor Senator Raskin testified in support of the act with three other free speech supporters: Rebecca Snyder, executive director of the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association; Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center; and Karen Houppert, a journalist and former adviser of Morgan State University’s student newspaper. No one testified in opposition to the bill.
During the bill’s second reading in the Senate, some legislators had doubts. Senator Stephen Hershey (R), for example, feared the legislation could allow corrupt journalism advisors to influence students’ work rather than guide them. With this in mind, amendments were added to the bill to prevent advisors from manipulating student media to promote an official school stance.
Additionally, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education has openly opposed the bill, viewing it as too radical. The act has, however, received endorsements from several publications in Maryland.
Junior Mira Haqqani, editor-in-chief of the JHU Politik, supports the sentiments of Senate Bill 764.
“The importance of freedom of speech on campus is often underrated,” she wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “I think that this bill is a step in the right direction in that we cannot claim to be a diverse institution if we do not allow open debate and free expression.”
Part of a national student-powered grassroots campaign advocated by the nonprofit Student Press Law Center, the New Voices Act has three distinct goals: restore student expression rights in public high schools, protect them in public colleges and extend those protections to private institutions.
The movement aims to reinstate the precedent set by Tinker v. Des Moines in 1968, which protected student speech unless it included libel, invaded privacy, incited danger or disrupted the functions of the school substantially. However, the 1988 ruling of Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier reduced protections for student journalism by giving school administrations the authority to easily justify curtailing free speech in educational settings. New Voices is currently pushing for new anti-censorship state reform to counter the effects of Hazelwood.
Sophomore Kailyn Fiocca expressed her thoughts on school censorship and the new legislation.
“Having written for a newspaper that was pretty heavily supervised and influenced by my high school’s administration, I think it’s really essential that students have the right to say what they want to say,” she said. “[This bill] is important because otherwise, true student voices won’t be heard, and that’s really unfair.”
If Maryland passes Senate Bill 764, it will join the likes of California, Oregon and North Dakota, which have similar legislation set to protect the rights of student media, and Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and Nebraska which have active New Voices bills.
Although the bill will not apply to private universities, Haqqani noted that at an institution like Hopkins, the ability for open student expression is critical.
“Strong student voices lead to well informed and engaged graduates,” she wrote, “and I think that’s what we should be striving for.”
