A bill that would keep administrators from censoring high school and college journalists passed the Oregon state legislature Monday. The free-expression bill is expected to be signed by the governor within days.
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"This is the first major victory for high school journalists in 12 years, since the Arkansas legislature passed a similar bill," said Warren Watson, director of
J-Ideas, a Knight-funded resource for student journalists at
Ball State University in Indiana.
The bill is the first to protect college and high school journalists under the same legislation. Under the bill, student journalists would be responsible for deciding the content of school-sponsored publications. J-Ideas reports that the bill would be written into a statute, which state education officials would pass on to individual school districts.
The legislation comes at a time when First Amendment leaders say student censorship is occurring more than ever before.
A similar bill introduced in Washington failed to clear the state legislature this spring.
See J-Ideas and the Student Press Law Center for further coverage.
