SBN signs on in support of student journalists at University of Texas

SBN added its name to a full-page ad sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists in support of student journalists at the University of Texas at Dallas, who went on strike when school officials removed the editor-in-chief of the student publication The Mercury. The school’s director of student media claims the editor violated school policies by holding multiple on-campus jobs, causing budget overruns and preventing her from performing her role as adviser to the newspaper. The editor says he was removed for not allowing the student media director to review stories prior to publication, and for reporting stories that school officials didn’t like.

School officials shut down the newspaper’s website for nearly 24 hours, according to the Dallas News.

“Actions like this are an egregious breach of the protections afforded all journalists by the First Amendment,” said SBN news director Steve Lubetkin. “It’s essential for professional journalists to stand in solidarity with our student journalists when faced with political and institutional pressures like this.”

The advertisement (reproduced below) includes the signatures of some 80 journalists, many of them officers of SPJ, and others from distinguished publications such as the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Times.

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