(The Center Square) – As a battle brews over freedom of the press at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, a free speech advocate says student journalists at public universities are protected under both the First Amendment and state law.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression urged SIUE officials to respect The Alestle’s independence after the student newspaper alleged that the school’s communications department interfered with student journalists’ interviews.
Marie McMullan, program manager and counsel for FIRE’s student press freedom initiative, said SIUE’s communications office insisted on being present for interviews between student reporters and university staff.
“When editor-in-chief Dylan Hembrough responded to the director of communications trying to assert his paper's rights, he was reported to the university police for harassment,” McMullan told The Center Square.
McMullan said police did not see Hembrough’s speech as harassment and recommended closing the case.
In a statement provided to The Center Square by SIUE Director of Communications Nicole Franklin, the school said the case is not about free speech or freedom of the press.
“The real issue is the lack of journalistic principles of objectivity, truthfulness and accuracy. Calling for accuracy is not interference. The Alestle has repeatedly published information that is inaccurate and, despite requests for corrections, has been slow or unwilling to make them,” the statement said.
SIUE said having a communications representative present during interviews involving official university business is consistent with standard communications practices.
“The purpose of such participation is to support the university’s communications function and the university employee participating in the interview, not to control a reporter’s questions, responses to questions, or determine what may be reported,” the statement said.
In an open letter to the university, SIUE Marketing and Communications Executive Director Paula Bridges requested that The Alestle “immediately retract the false claim” that the school’s communications director threatened to cancel an interview if a communications representative was not permitted to attend.
“Such a retraction is warranted based on the documented facts and is necessary to uphold the expectation of integrity that responsible journalism demands,” Bridges wrote.
Tammy Merrett is program director of student publications at SIUE.
“The university's response, basically throwing the student news organization under the bus, is categorically false. They are kind of taking a page out of our current president's playbook, I think, in just denying, denying, and denying, and alleging that we've got fake news going on here,” Merrett told The Center Square.
Merrett said the university marketing and communications director inserted herself into the process of trying to contact sources and set up interviews.
“And for a beginning reporter who's trying to learn to do journalism as they're doing it, the last thing they also need is a media minder there while they're conducting the interview,” Merrett said.
McMullan said the First Amendment provides protections for editorially independent newspapers at public universities.
“There's also, additionally in Illinois, a new voices act that gives statutory protection for student newsrooms to be free of retaliation,” McMullan said.
House Bill 4420, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, provides that public media produced at a state-sponsored institution of higher learning is not subject to prior review by the institution’s public officials.
“Basically that means being free from being negatively treated because of what they're publishing and what they're saying,” McMullan said.
SIUE was one of eight Illinois schools that received an F grade in FIRE’s college free speech rankings earlier this month.
