The Indiana Daily Student (IDS), Indiana University\u2019s student newspaper, was told they could not print news stories other than homecoming events on Oct. 7. When the paper said they wouldn\u2019t agree to the university\u2019s terms, its print issue was cut and the student media advisor,\u00a0 Jim Rodenbush, was fired less than a week later.<\/p>\n
The IDS is one of the biggest student papers in the country and the situation is being closely followed nationally. While the university stated that print was cut due to financial reasons, students and the public believe the real reason for cutting print was censorship, as it occurred two days later. This raises questions about the ethics of censoring student media outlets in light of First Amendment freedoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that any administration should dictate what the student journalists can and can\u2019t cover, unless there are serious problems with financial ability to fund whatever,\u201d said Judd Cribbs, journalism professor at FGCU. \u201cOr if it\u2019s factually wrong, like if there are things in there that are defamatory, or, you know, factually wrong that could lead to misrepresentation of the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cribbs was a reporter, writer and managing editor in Cincinnati before traveling to Southwest Florida to teach journalism at FGCU. Cribbs\u2019 Media Law and Ethics class has become synonymous with his teachings, in which he goes over situations and relevant Supreme Court cases that are similar to this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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This isn\u2019t the first time a student newspaper has accused a university of restricting its freedom of the press. In 2005, Governors State University in Illinois asked the student newspaper, The Innovator, to stop printing until Dean of Student Affairs Patricia Carter could check the articles. This move was made after several articles were critical of the university.<\/p>\n
The case, Hosty v. Carter, went to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in which the court ruled that since the newspaper wasn\u2019t a public forum, the university had the right to manage what was put into the newspaper. In the case of the IDS, it is a public forum, but receives its funding from donations provided by the university, as its print service was able to be cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they [journalism students] want to do news, and they\u2019ve done their due diligence and vetted it, and it\u2019s fact-based, it should be able to do what they want to do,\u201d Cribbs said.<\/p>\n
The social media backlash helped the newspaper. As of Oct. 30, IU backed down from its decision. Chancellor of IU Bloomington David Reingold said in an email to the two editors in chief of the IDS that he \u201cauthorized the financial office to allow the IDS, under the supervision of The Media School, to use their established budget through June 30, 2026, as the editors see fit\u2014so long as they remain true to their budgetary parameters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was understood to mean that IDS will be able to print again, according to an article written by WFIU, IU\u2019s NPR affiliate and Inside Higher Ed. But the matter is still not fully resolved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I think if a university wants its students to learn how and operate, how a newspaper and a news organization operate, they need to create an environment that is similar to what a regular newspaper would operate in,\u201d USA Today Network reporter Nick Wilson said. \u201cSo there\u2019s no overarching government authority dictating what you can and can\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson graduated from FGCU with a bachelor\u2019s degree in communication with a journalism minor. Since graduating in 2022, he has worked as a sports reporter in a professional newsroom at Gannett. He stepped into a new role as a state recruiting reporter in August 2024.<\/p>\n
Both journalists believe this could have been solved through better communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth sides- the students and the administration- have to be transparent and have to communicate about this and sit down and say what\u2019s really happening,\u201d Cribbs said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of area for forgiveness, for understanding, for compromise, but none of that can happen if it\u2019s not honest, face-to-face dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of time where you can establish lines of communication with whoever is involved and whoever the decision makers are and say, \u2018Hey, this is coming\u2019. I just want you guys to be aware of it. To me, that should be where the line is drawn,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
The same day IDS was allowed to print again, Jim Rodenbush, the media advisor who was fired, filed a lawsuit against IU for wrongful termination and violation of his First Amendment rights. Nonetheless, this raised the question of whether something of this magnitude can happen to other student newspapers at universities around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media landscape changes so much,\u201d Cribbs said. \u201cThe reach of media is different now than it used to be and I think it\u2019s just that people are more aware of stuff going on, because you can get it from\u2026 social media, online and all these other places.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Daily Student (IDS), Indiana University\u2019s student newspaper, was told they could not print news stories other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-54275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}