AEJMC Resolution Two 2022
New Voices Laws
CONTACT:
Samantha Higgins, AEJMC Communications Director, 803-798-0271
Deb Aikat, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, AEJMC president
Resolution Two:
Whereas, in its mission the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC), as part of its “Professional Freedom and Responsibility” goals, works to promote freedom of speech and the press as embodied in the First Amendment; and
Whereas, the association encourages its members to promote and defend those rights vigorously; and
Whereas, in 2022, Hawaii became the 16th state to adopt a New Voices law, which restores and protects the freedom of Hawaii’s student media; and
Whereas, Hawaii’s HB 1848 ensures that student journalists alone determine the content of school-sponsored media, including but not limited to video, audio, print and digital outlets, and are protected from censorship except in narrow, well-defined circumstances while protecting student media advisers from retaliation for refusing to illegally censor their students’ work; and
Whereas, similar laws have been or are currently being considered by a number of state legislatures, including New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia; and
Whereas, First Amendment rights of student journalists are now protected by state law in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the state of Washington.
Now, therefore, be it resolved, that AEJMC take an active role in supporting the passage of New Voices laws through its Elected Standing Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility and the AEJMC Scholastic Journalism Division, one of the association’s original divisions; and
Be it further resolved that through units such as the AEJMC Law and Policy Division, AEJMC strongly encourages research and teaching about New Voices laws and student press freedom in courses in the law of mass communication required in programs accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, as well as in other courses as appropriate.
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