First Amendment rights not to be violated at any level

Several newspapers, both professional and collegiate-level, wrote editorials rebuking the actions of the Harrisonburg Police Department and the Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst concerning the James Madison University newspaper, The Breeze, last week.

We decided to join the party.

According to the Student Press Law Center, “Garst and several police officers executed a search warrant in the Breeze newsroom, seeking photos of recent rioting in Harrisonburg. They threatened to take computers, cameras and more, and eventually confiscated more than 900 photographs. The photographs have since been given to a third party to hold pending further negotiations between the newspaper and the authorities.”

This is an outrage as far as we are concerned, but it’s the public that should be furious. When big stories break, sometimes it’s college newspapers that pick up on them first. Take, for example, the Duke lacrosse hoax.

In the 10 days immediately following the rape charge of the students, the Duke Chronicle student journalists refused to print rumors and gossip and suggested in their newspaper that the the New York Times and CNN were both reporting rumors and gossip provided by people who clearly did not care for male athletes and fraternity members.

Day after day, student reporters wrote articles in which each allegation against the lacrosse team was listed in detail along with statements detailing the complete lack of evidence for each allegation. Several faculty members tried to shut down the student newspaper, and the student journalists reported that effort as headline news. All of this took place while network reporters were pounding on the door of the student newspaper or sitting outside in the parking lots in huge news truck with satellite dishes pointed towards the sky.

Duke did not want a jury to read those stories and see the student reporter’s notes. So they should be able to confiscate them, right?

Wrong. The press, at every level, is free. The First Amendment should protect even student journalists, and other students should be supporting them. All our rights are being hindered here.

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