Speech Rights For Student Journalists
Take Action to Put an End to Censorship of New Jersey’s Student Journalists
There are 2 important ways you can make a huge difference to grant freedom of expression to students in NJ.
Freedom of the press is one of our most important Constitutional rights. Journalists play a critical role in spreading information and engaging the community. So why are we allowing our student journalists to be silenced on the important topics they want to write about? New Jersey’s student journalists deserve to have their voices heard. The Hazelwood standard deprives these students of valuable educational experiences by dictating what topics they can and cannot write about. Restricting these student’s speech rights is not the answer. The answer is giving them the knowledge and tools necessary to cover difficult topics with journalistic integrity. We must do better for these students and their advisors by protecting their First Amendment rights.
Donate
Your donation will be used to support the advocacy effort to grant students the right to a free press in NJ.
Donate to support our student journalists.
Ask your 2 Assembly Members to co-sponsor this bill. We’ve prepared a sample email for you to use, but we highly encourage you to modify it to make it more personal.
Sample Email to your Legislator
Subject line: A note from your constituent - please support A169 to give press rights to student journalists in New Jersey
Dear Assembly member _____,
As your constituent, I strongly encourage you to cosponsor and support A169, which would give student journalists press rights within our state. This bill has unanimously passed the Senate on March 5, 2021 and reported out of the Assembly Education Committee with amendments on March 17, 2021.
New Jersey’s student journalists deserve to have their voices heard. The Hazelwood standard deprives these students of valuable educational experiences by dictating what topics they can and cannot write about. Restricting these student’s speech rights is not the answer. The answer is giving them the knowledge and tools necessary to cover difficult topics with journalistic integrity. We must do better for these students and their advisors by protecting their First Amendment rights.
I ask that you please stand with our students and protect their rights to a free press by cosponsoring and supporting A169.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
CITY, NJ
STEP 2: Call Your 2 Assembly Members Today
After emailing your legislator, be sure to follow up with their office with a polite phone call. Calling takes less than two minutes, and it’s really easy! We’ve prepared a sample script for you to use but please feel free to modify it to make it more personal.
Sample Call Script to your legislators
Hi, my name is _____, and I’m a New Jersey resident from __(city)__. I’m following up on an email I sent earlier about requesting Assembly member _____ to please co-sponsor A169 to grant speech rights to student journalists in New Jersey.
Thank you.
