University papers must uphold right to free speech

On Friday, The Daily Campus published a letter to the editor from our colleagues at The Los Angeles City College (LACC) Collegian, who claim that their paper is under assault from their administration.

It is our opinion that any action against student journalism should be perceived as an attack on our democracy, and we would like to take the opportunity to remind students how subtly these attacks can proceed.

To summarize, the Collegian believes that a recent cut to their budget is retaliation for a complaint the paper filed against the LACC President Jamillah Moore, who they say demanded Collegian reporters identify themselves and seek permission to attend a public meeting. More importantly, the cut puts the paper at risk of being absorbed into the school, with all the administrative control that implies.

In fairness to Moore, it is unlikely that her actions were malicious. LACC is struggling with its own budget problems, as are UConn and scores of other universities, and so it is reasonable to assume she is exercising every option she can to save money. The same goes for the other slights the Collegian has accused her of - who can say that her motivation in asking reporters to identify themselves was not so she could ensure they received her comments on the meeting's matters?

But good intentions do not always lead to good actions, and therefore we wish to remind the UConn community that free speech is more than just a slogan, and that the sovereignty of any newspaper is so heavily ingrained in a free society that even innocent actions toward it must be approached with an unusually heavy ethical consideration.

It often goes overlooked in the media that besides looking for corruption, our very presence stems its tide. There is a lessened inclination to misbehave when any body, be it governmental, educational or even that of a student organization, when it knows that it is being watched. And when there is no oversight, it becomes easier and easier to mentally rationalize immoral actions.

To have an administration meddle - either directly or indirectly - in this series of investigation and prevention is to delegitimize all the social benefits we receive from it. That is why Moore's actions are reprehensible. It is hard to conceive of an outcome to this situation where the newspaper is not either neutered or destroyed outrightly, and that does LACC a disservice as much as anything else.

The Daily Campus has been independent of the university since the '70s and we count ourselves fortunate to exist on a campus which, staff and students together, seem to respect and understand the importance of a free press. We hope this tradition continues past the present economic hardships and through the future generations who will carry our democratic ideals far beyond the scope of our brief lives.