Media Law Question of the Week

Media Law Question of the Week

Given our discussion last week covering freedom of speech in schools and the Hazelwood v. Kuhlemeier case, what is your response to the following scenario:


Your cousin Andrea is the Student Editor of the student newspaper at East Beverly High. Although she is just a high school student, the burden of the entire operation ultimately rests on her shoulders. It is Andrea’s job to assign stories to student reporters, select photos taken by student photographers for print, and oversee the proper layout of the stories on the pages of the paper. With only one hour out of the regular school day allotted to this task, Andrea gets most of her work done after school.

For this week’s paper, student reporter Brandon interviewed Kelly, a student at East Beverly High. The story was about plastic surgery. Kelly’s opinion was solicited because she had had a nose job. But Brandon’s interviewing technique was unfocused and he wandered into a variety of other areas. During the questioning, Kelly let slip for the first time that another student, Steve, raped her the previous year. After reading Brandon’s notes from the interview, Andrea recognized that this was quite a scoop, considering Steve is very popular and has never been in any serious legal trouble before. Andrea’s final edit of the article included the full interview with Kelly.

The paper already went to print last night. This morning, the teacher assigned to oversee the paper saw Brandon’s article for the first time and immediately brought a copy of the paper to the Principal. The Principal, appalled by the subject matter and concerned for Kelly and Steve’s reputations, agreed that the article had to go. Since the paper had already been printed, the page with Brandon’s article was removed from every copy before distribution to the student body.

What do you think her rights are here, and what should she do?

For this first question, don’t worry about being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Just identify what issues you think are going on here and how what we discussed in class (or what you read in the book) applies in this case. Remember to keep your answer limited to one page. Email your answer before the start of class next week.

Thank you, and remember to try to have a little fun with it.