New voices is a student-powered nonpartisan grassroots movement of state-based activists who seek to protect student press freedom with state laws. Image: Student press law center (SPLC)
Introduction to “New Voices”
Provided by Taran Harmon-Walker, Navroz Tharani and Clare Norins of the First Amendment Clinic, University of Georgia School of Law
High school journalists across the country have long provided news reporting, political and social commentary and valuable perspective on issues of public concern to their readership. In an age of dwindling commercial print media, student journalists also serve as an important source of local news, not only for their classmates but for their surrounding community.
Yet, student journalists operate with varying degrees of speech and press freedom depending on whether their state has enacted legislation safeguarding free expression in school-sponsored media. This patchwork of state protections is a direct result of the Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, which affords school administrators broad discretion to censor school journalists’ speech, while other forms of student speech remain more highly protected.
Since the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court has maintained that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In Tinker, the Court held that the First Amendment protects students’ speech and expression up until it creates a reasonably foreseeable risk of “substantial disruption” of or “material interference” with school activities. The “Tinker standard” allowed for robust free-speech protections for all students, including student journalists, for almost two decades.
But in 1988, the Supreme Court walked back the Tinker standard for student journalists when it decided Hazelwood. In that case, the Court authorized school officials to censor the content and style of school-sponsored media so long as the decision to censor is “reasonably related to a legitimate pedagogical purpose.” This means that school administrators can also discipline or threaten the employment of journalism advisers if they object to censorship of their students’ work.
In the more than 30 years since Hazelwood, prior review and censorship of student journalists, particularly at the high school level, has proliferated and continues today. The Student Press Law Center (SPLC), a national First Amendment non-profit, has documented recent examples of student press censorship across the country: Student Journalists in 2020: Journalism Against the Odds.
To counter the effects of Hazelwood and suppression of student journalists’ expression rights, the SPLC has spearheaded a legislative initiative known as “New Voices.” This initiative aims to reinforce the Tinker standard through passage of state laws that prohibit restricting the speech of student journalists and their advisers. As a result, 14 states now have a law on the books protecting the speech and expression rights of student journalists.
Georgia’s State Constitution affords broad free speech protections to all Georgia citizens that would be consistent with a “New Voices” statute for student journalists. But Georgia has yet to consider such a law, leaving Georgia’s high school students and their advisers vulnerable to Hazelwood-enabled censorship by school administrators. Indeed, Georgia’s state-wide teaching standards specifically incorporate Hazelwood-based censorship as part of journalism advisers’ official job duties.
Student journalists and journalism advisers may wish to consider whether student journalism in Georgia should once again receive the same protection as other forms of student expression under the Supreme Court’s Tinker standard. If you would like to learn more about the “New Voices” movement, including how to become active in Georgia, please email newvoicesga@gmail.com. Please note New Voices GA is an independent, student led group that is not part of GSPA. Materials provided on this website are for educational purposes only.
Additionally, if you have experienced censorship as a high school journalist or journalism advisor in Georgia, please consider completing this survey to help document the continuing effects of Hazelwood.
Norins, C; Harmon-Walker, T. and Tharani, N., Restoring Student Press Freedoms: Why Every State Needs a “New Voices” Law, 32 GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY CIVIL RIGHTS LAW JOURNAL 63 (2021).
Timeline of Student Press Legislative Protections (via the Student Press Law Center)
Student Journalism Rights: New Voices Law Comparisons Across States
What is Prior Review?
Prior review occurs when a school administrator, other than an official member of the school-sponsored media’s editorial staff, reviews content before it is published. If an administrator engages in prior review and then stops certain speech or ideas from being published, they cross the line into prior restraint,[1] which is a First Amendment violation outside of a school context. It can also be a First Amendment violation in school-sponsored media if done without a valid educational reason (see “Prior Restraint” page).
Often, knowing that a school administrator will review material before it is published causes students to self-censor to ensure that their work gets approved. When students self-censor in response to prior review, this is referred to in First Amendment terms as a “chilling effect.” There is a “chilling effect” when journalists self-restrict their work out of fear of retaliation or because they have been punished or prohibited from publishing work in the past. Read the full information sheet on Prior Review here.
What is Prior Restraint?
Free expression is an important part of our U.S. democracy. Thomas Jefferson once said: “Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”[1] Prior restraint limits this right to free speech and press and censors speech protected by the Constitution.
Prior Restraint is a form of censorship where speech or expression is stopped before it occurs.[2] For student journalists, prior restraint happens when a school administrator limits or bans student speech from being published. This usually happens after an administrator reviews the student journalist’s writing (see page on Prior Review) and decides that the material will not be published, or that parts of it have to be removed before it can be published. Read the full information sheet on Prior Restraint here.
[1] See Thomas Jefferson, Quotes by and about Thomas Jefferson: Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Currie (Jan. 28-29, 1786), https://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/2141.
[2] See Daniel Baracskay, The First Amendment Encyclopedia: Prior Restraint (2009), https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1009/prior-restraint.
Prepared April 2021 by Taran Harmon-Walker (3L) & Navroz Tharani (2L)
“New Voices Flyer” created November 2021 by
Katie Freeman (2L) & Brianna Yates (2L)