School Newspaper Censorship

First Amendment freedom is a topic of great interest to me, so the article relating to banning a photo portraying "flag burning" caught my eye. Although the ethics in "flag burning" is an interesting topic to take up, let's focus on the censorship of the school newspaper.

At St. Francis High School, administration review of the student newspaper is uncommon. However, with regard to a photograph from the fall play that gave the impression that the lead character was burning a flag, censorship came into play.

"Principal Paul Neubauer threatened the paper with legal action and froze its funds after the paper gave him a heads-up that they were planning to run it."

In order to avoid risking the future of the publication, editors of the school paper ran a blue box where the photo would have been with a caption stating it had been censored by administration. Although this action pleased those in charge, it sends the message that media censorship is an acceptable practice. By no means is the truth!

Ok, maybe a few exceptions to this rule exist, especially with student publications (best described in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier), but the touchy nature of the photograph subject is surely not one of them. Although the ethical nature of flag burning is highly questionable for various reasons of patriotism, it is a legal action (Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman). In any case, the ethics of flag burning should not affect the ethics of administration censoring a school publication. Just because a photograph of someone burning a flag may offend someone, that doesn't mean it should be kept from being published.

Just as citizens have the freedom of political expression to burn a flag, journalists have the freedom to publish without censorship. Whether a student journalist or a highly-published journalist, censorship by administration, especially for personal reasons, is illegal and unethical.