Bite for your rights
Has your student media been censored or threatened? We want to know. We want to help. Heres how SPJ defends student journalists...
Latest news
- The outlaw editor
- Tough shirt
- Oh, the irony…
- See no evil
- Finger in the Pye
We publicly shame bullies
Sometimes thats administration. Sometimes Student Government. Recently, it was even another newspaper. When Florida Atlantic University editor Emily Bloch was plagiarized by a local weekly and ignored by its editors, our reporting was picked up by national outlets. Those editors quickly suspended the offender.
But if that doesnt work...
We embrace uncivil disobedience
When Georgias attorney general ordered David Schick to remove embarrassing public records from his personal blog, we published those same public records on our website and recruited others to do the same. After realizing his embarrassment was spreading nationwide, the attorney general gave up the very next day.
But if that doesnt work...
We handle boring logistics
When Florida A&M shut down its newspaper for a month because it ran too many negative stories, editors started their own online publication. We offered tech advice and even recruited a college copyediting team from around the country so the editors could spend more time doing more journalism that pissed off more administrators.
But if that doesnt work...
We cough up cash
When editors at Iowas Muscatine Community College wanted to start their own newspaper after their school hired a private investigator to interrogate them about their reporting we led a fundraising effort that surpassed $5,400 in less than a week.
But if that doesnt work...
We get defensive
When Otterbein University refused to release police reports about an alleged campus rape and other serious incidents, editor Anna Schiffbauer sued the school. SPJs Legal Defense Fund gave her $10,000 to pay an attorney. Her case made it all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court where she won.
Now were combining all these tactics into a single, snarling watchdog group called SMACK. And were adding some new ideas...
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Learn more
– J Team: Smack some sense into your censors
– Bayonet Awards: Recognizing the nation's edgiest student journalists
– News: College Media Watchdog
– Meet the staff
– Contact us