What is unfolding at Indiana University (IU), where the Indiana Daily Student is facing an unprecedented attack on its editorial independence, reflects a chilling effect on press freedom across the country. The growing reach of prior restraint and administrative interference threatens to snuff out freedom of the press everywhere.
Over the past few days, IU’s Media School Dean David Tolchinsky fired the Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush, who also serves as an adviser to the Indiana Daily Student, and shortly after slashed all print production after a dispute with the student editorial staff — who simply wanted to include news content in the homecoming special edition. The IDS had no say in this decision, the staff reports.
Student journalists are not training for the real press; we are the press. We report. We hold power to account and we serve our schools and surrounding neighborhoods, often with limited pay, resources or institutional backing. The idea that any university administrator can dictate, suppress or punish the editorial freedom of student reporters is antithetical to the principles of a free press and academic freedom alike.
This weekend, the best of campus media is gathering in Washington, D.C., for MediaFest. Usually, we’d be engaged in friendly competition with outlets across the country. But if student media are to remain strong, we must stand united on the most basic value that binds us together: the right to report without fear or favor — from our universities or any other institution.
The Indiana Daily Student’s editor-in-chiefs said it best in their editorial, published Tuesday: “Telling us what we can and cannot print is unlawful censorship, established by legal precedent surrounding speech law on public college campuses.”
At The DePaulia and La DePaulia, we are fortunate to operate with editorial independence that has not been threatened by our university, but we know that this freedom is fragile. What happened in Bloomington is not isolated. If one student newsroom can be silenced for doing its job, every newsroom is at risk — from campus media to local and national outlets.
The Student Press Law Center, one of the most fervent defenders of student press freedom in the nation, agrees:
“The Media School’s order limiting the Indiana Daily Student’s print edition to homecoming coverage isn’t a ‘business decision’ — it’s censorship,” said Jonathan Gaston-Falk, staff attorney at the Student Press Law Center. “This disregards strong First Amendment protections and a long-standing tradition of student editorial independence at Indiana University.”
We stand firmly with the Indiana Daily Student and with its adviser, Jim Rodenbush, who was terminated for defending his students’ right to publish without interference. We urge Indiana University to immediately reinstate him, publicly affirm the editorial independence of the Indiana Daily Student and commit to protecting student journalists from administrative overreach.
Support the Indiana Daily Student here and read its editorial here.
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DePaulia’s Managing Editors are LiLi Jarvenpa, Jake Cox, Brielle Kohlbeck, Jeremy Battle, Sofia Joseph and Laura Vázquez David. The DePaulia’s adviser Martha Irvine and La DePaulia’s mentor Arturo Fernández additionally endorse this statement.