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Student journalists at the University of Missouri at Columbia celebrated Friday after reaching an agreement with administrators to exempt student reporters from campus Title IX policies, which required them to identify sources in articles about sensitive cases such as sexual assault.
Under former policies, all employees in the University of Missouri system—including students in work-study programs—were required to report instances of discrimination or sexual harassment. The requirement included the disclosure of all information about the incident. Refusal to do so could result in disciplinary action.
Although the policy exempted some employees, including health-care providers, counselors and lawyers, student journalists, who may rely on information from confidential sources to fully report their articles, were not spared.
Missouri system leaders publicly committed to changing the policy more than a year ago but had not formally done so. Staff members of the independent student newspaper The Maneater underwent mandatory training for other campus jobs, such as residential advisers, and were not told about any exception for journalists as would have been the case if the new policy change had taken effect.
That’s why the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression stepped in.
Lindsie Rank, student press counsel at FIRE, said in a letter to Missouri administrators that the university was prohibited under the First Amendment from demanding that students reveal their sources or other information.
“Requiring student journalists to turn over pre-publication information to … officials constitutes unconstitutional prior review,” Rank wrote.
The system’s policy is now updated in writing.
“Student journalists must remain free to investigate and report on sexual assault and other forms of discrimination and harassment, and survivors must remain free to share their stories with reporters without fear that an interview will launch an institutional investigation,” Rank said in a press release following the decision.
