Student press bills are now springing up in a variety of states. In
response to the 2005 Hotsy v. Carter decision in the 7th Circuit Court
of Appeals, four states now have had legislation introduced seeking to
ensure college student journalists would have full free press rights.
Largely in response to the Hotsy v. Carter ruling, California passed AB 2581,
protecting
their student journalists.
The bill made it clear that college journalists would have the the same
freedom of press rights that non-student journalists do. Now, this
type of legislation appears to be a new trend in other legislators.
This session legislators in Oregon,
Washington
and Illinois
have introduced their own versions. We applaud these legislators for
seeing the benefit to students that a free press brings. Let’s
hope this is only the beginning of the trend.