Student newspapers hit by increased censorship

Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said his center usually deals with between 2,000 and 3,000 cases a year regarding censorship in colleges and high schools across the country.

American colleges fail to educate administrators about press freedom, and some of the administrators see censorship as a proud thing to do, Goodman said.

Facing censorship, these student journalists can lose faith in what they can do as media professionals. “If we loose the heart and mind of young journalists, we lose the group as a whole,” Goodman said.

The Hampton Script, a student newspaper at Hampton University, was confiscated three years ago. Our co-ASNE reporter, Marvin Anderson, was a staff writer. As much as I pressed him, he did not want to talk further.

Read more: Teens on shaky ground with First Amendment

By HUONG LE / ASNE Reporter