Harvard Med School Backs Down on Media Rules

Harvard University's medical school is backing away from new rules about student interaction with reporters, following complaints that the policy would block discussion of key issues, The New York Times reported. The controversial policy -- which officials have now vowed to change -- said that all interactions between students and the press needed to be coordinated by the deans of students and public affairs. Harvard officials claimed that the policy was designed to help students, not muzzle them. But students noted that the policy followed student activism (much of it covered by reporters) demanding that the medical school and others pay more attention to issues of conflict of interest in biomedical research. And students argued that university officials shouldn't be required to be involved when students may well be criticizing the university.