Freedom for the world’s press must include scholastic media, too

May 3. Washington, D. C.

World Press Freedom Day.

The first time since UNESCO started the event 18 years ago the United States will host it.

And the perfect time to call for its tenets to be extended to scholastic media in a country that promotes freedom – and responsibility – for every other nation’s media.

We join the SPLC and 38 other journalism and free-speech organizations in an “open letter” to President Obama and Secretary Clinton urging them to use this occasion to declare their support for freeing “the other half” of America’s press.

On the eve of the JEA/NSPA scholastic media convention, JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission urges you to do the same. Write an editorial. Create a community forum. Discuss the review and censorship of student media – if it occurs – in your school’s communities and show how it limits education and twarts critical thinking.

Step up and join these 38 organizations in fighting to extend press freedom to a significant group of Americans – you.