By Jennifer Bensko Ha
Director, Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA)
If things looked bleak for student press rights in 1974 when the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) was founded, welcome to the chilling media landscape of 2025. In this environment, the number of local news organizations is shrinking, national news organizations are experiencing censorship by their owners, the Associated Press (AP) has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the federal government, and media organizations not in sync with executive-level messaging are barred from access to the president. While a judge has said the president may continue to bar the AP, the lawsuit and other challenges to the media are strong reminders that protecting the work of all journalists—whether in professional media or on student publications—is more necessary and urgent than ever to keep the public informed.
With press freedoms under threat and local news outfits shrinking in number, student journalism has begun to meet the need of keeping communities informed. “The Student Press Law Center has always done important work defending the rights of an oft-forgotten part of the media ecosystem: student journalists. That work is even more important today, as students are increasingly stepping into the breach created by the shrinking or closing of local newspapers,” said Jim Brady, VP of Journalism at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which provided funding in support of SPLC. He continued, “SPLC is evolving to meet this new trend, and Knight is proud to support this important organization.”
Last October, the Knight Foundation and CSPA, among others, were on hand to attend SPLC’s 50th-birthday celebration, hosted at the headquarters of The New York Times. Speakers included New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, “who called upon SPLC when his high school newspaper was shut down due to his early muckraking”; then–Columbia Spectator editor-in-chief Isabella Ramírez; and The Dartmouth managing editor Charlotte Hampton. Ramirez and Hampton joined Kristof to discuss their coverage of 2024 campus spring protests and the role of student journalism today.
Since its founding, SPLC has remained an independent, nonpartisan organization that works to promote, support, and defend the First Amendment and press freedom rights of high school and college journalists and their advisers. SPLC also runs a legal hotline, provides direct legal support for publications, develops educational materials, and conducts training throughout the United States. According to its 2023 to 2024 annual report, SPLC answered more than 940 hotline calls from 47 states, educated more than 4,500 students and advisers in 22 states, and conducted 140 in-person events. It is also a staunch advocate of New Voices legislation.
These services fulfill a critical need for student publications. “SPLC is essential because they have what students and advisers lack: expertise in all of the laws and court cases that impact student journalism," said 2024 CSPA National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year and University of Chicago teacher and publications adviser Logan Aimone. "For 50 years, SPLC's lawyers and staff have worked to proactively educate students, teachers, and administrators—and they’ve had our back when we’ve been challenged. I know that thousands of people in our field breathe easier knowing the lifeline of SPLC is there if needed.” Aimone served on the SPLC board of directors from 2017 to 2023.
Sara Barber-Just, English Department head and adviser to The Graphic at Amherst Regional High School, reached out to SPLC for needed support. “When my high school students were engaged in complex and investigatory reporting to uncover transphobia and bullying at our middle school—that was leading to catastrophic mental health outcomes for LGBTQ youth—the SPLC stepped in to provide these young journalists with essential, useful, and powerful guidance and support…The students were able to publish a truthful and objective yet hard-hitting report about school staff and administrators that ultimately led to major change and won them national journalism awards. Later, when staff who lost their jobs tried to implicate me as a journalism adviser in lawsuits against the district, the SPLC worked to protect and defend me in my adviser role. My students ultimately held people accountable who had ignored discrimination, and our school is now better for their brave work. They could not have achieved what they did without the passionate and knowledgeable advocacy of the SPLC.” Barber-Just and the staff at The Graphic won the Edmund J. Sullivan Award from CSPA in 2024.
On Student Press Freedom Day and every day, CSPA supports student press freedom, SPLC, and all advocates of protecting the First Amendment rights of a free press. Thank you, SPLC, and happy birthday.
We hope to see you at the CSPA Spring Convention, taking place on the Columbia University campus in New York City March 19–21, 2025. The event will host more than 240 sessions that include speakers from SPLC, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and major news organizations from around the country. Learn more here.
