ARLINGTON, Va. — A New Jersey college student newspaper
that is battling to prevent school administrators from firing their faculty
adviser because of unfavorable news and editorial coverage about their school
has been named the recipient of the 2006 College Press Freedom Award.
The
award to the
Viking News, the student newspaper at Ocean County College
in Toms River, N.J., was presented at the Associated Collegiate Press/College
Media Advisers national convention in St. Louis on Oct.
28.
The award, sponsored by the Student Press Law
Center and the Associated Collegiate Press, is given each year to a college
student journalist or student news organization that has demonstrated
outstanding support for the free press rights of America's college student
media.Three editors at the
Viking News filed a lawsuit in
May against college President Jon Larson and several other administrators after
the school removed longtime newspaper adviser Karen Bosley. The lawsuit alleges
that Bosley’s removal was the result of retaliation for several stories
the newspaper wrote critical of the school’s administration.
In
July, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary injunction that
ordered school officials to reinstate Bosley as adviser while the lawsuit
continues.
"It is clear," the judge wrote, "that such a retaliatory
removal would...have an impermissibly chilling effect on the paper’s
student editors’ freedom of expression in future issues of the paper, and
inflict irreparable harm...."
The newspaper is being represented for free
by attorneys with the Philadelphia-based law firm Pepper Hamilton
LLP.
"Thanks to the Viking News' perseverance
and commitment, their adviser — who for more than three decades has put
her neck on the chopping block to stand up for her students — is back in
the newsroom today," SPLC Legal Consultant Mike Hiestand told the gathering of
college student journalists and advisers from across the country.
"Student media advisers everywhere can
breathe at least a little bit easier thanks to the precedent their case has
established," Hiestand said. Alberto
Morales, the Viking News' current editor in chief and a plaintiff in the
lawsuit, accepted the award on behalf of the
newspaper.Founded in 1921, the
National Scholastic Press Association and its college division, the Associated
Collegiate Press, provide rating services and critical analyses for print and
electronic student news media and sponsor the largest annual national
conventions for student journalists and their
advisers.Since its founding in 1974,
the Student Press Law Center has been the only national organization exclusively
devoted to providing free legal advice and assistance to student journalists and
advisers and serving as an advocate for their free press and freedom of
information rights.
For More Information: Contact Mark Goodman, Executive Director,
Student Press Law Center, (703) 807-1904
