Protect The 1st Foundation
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
Picture

Barnard College Investigates Student Journalists for Conducting Journalism

5/12/2025

 
Picture
​Georgia Dillane did not attend the pro-Palestinian sit-in at Barnard College in March. She wasn’t out in the crowd; she was in the school’s WKCR radio studio anchoring a broadcast. Yet weeks later, she found herself accused by Barnard of “disorderly conduct, disruptive behavior, failure to comply, unauthorized entry, threatening behavior, and theft, vandalism or damage to property.” All for doing her job as a journalist.
 
Her colleague, Celeste Gamble, was at the scene, but only as a credentialed student reporter. She left when told by police to evacuate. There is no reason to believe she was anything but professional in her role as an objective observer. Yet, like Dillane, Gamble received emails from Barnard’s CARES (Community Accountability, Response, and Emergency Services) office demanding she meet without legal counsel to “refute any suggestion” of wrongdoing. Neither student had been disruptive. Neither had committed any known infraction. Yet they were treated as suspects.
 
Dillane’s offense appears to be little more than journalism. Her real “crime” was that a man later arrested by immigration authorities could be heard in her audio report. That connection, however tenuous, was enough to get her flagged as a potential wrongdoer just weeks before graduation, which had temporarily been put in jeopardy.
 
This is not an isolated incident. As we’ve noted in our coverage of Tufts Ph.D. student Rumeysa Orturk, moral panic over campus protests is now being weaponized against students with the flimsiest of links to the turmoil. Orturk, too, was no ringleader – just a signatory to a student op-ed, sober and serious, that was critical of Israel. Orturk was arrested and nearly deported before a judge intervened.
 
The recent spike in antisemitism on college campuses is real, troubling, and must be countered and kept from happening again. Hate speech and threats of violence must always be taken seriously by college administrations. But the solution cannot be to launch witch hunts against students who write, report, or question. Colleges and universities are where the principle of free inquiry – so foundational to our democracy – is meant to be practiced.
 
If journalism is rebranded as “disruption,” and if signing an op-ed becomes a pretext for arrest, we risk sliding from law enforcement into the realm of viewpoint persecution. Institutions like Barnard should be defending their students’ right to report and speak freely, not joining in the chorus of overreaction.
 
Even though New York’s shield law provides strong protections for journalists, including an absolute privilege for confidential sources, it doesn’t cover unpaid student reporters. Still, courts in the Second Circuit have found that student journalists can claim a qualified First Amendment privilege if they gather news for public distribution. Undermining their independence betrays both press freedom and the core mission of higher education.
 
In this age of guilt by association, the pursuit of actual wrongdoers can give way to the harassment of innocent people, even those who (unlike the two student journalists) have opinions we detest. We should remember freedom means protecting dissenters we disagree with, and standing up for process even when we’re angry. Otherwise, we lose not only our cool, but our constitutional compass.

    STAY UP TO DATE

Subscribe to Newsletter
DONATE & HELP US PROTECT YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021

    Categories

    All
    2022 Year In Review
    2023 Year In Review
    2024 Year In Review
    Amicus Briefs
    Analysis
    Book Banning
    Campus Speech
    Censorship
    Congress
    Court Hearings
    Donor Privacy
    Due Process
    First Amendment
    First Amendment Online
    Freedom Of Press
    Freedom Of Religion
    Freedom Of Speech
    Government Transparency
    In The Media
    Journalism
    Law Enforcement
    Legal
    Legislation
    Legislative Agenda
    Letters To Congress
    Motions
    News
    Online Speech
    Opinion
    Parental Rights
    PRESS Act
    PT1 Amicus Briefs
    Save Oak Flat
    School Choice
    SCOTUS
    Section 230
    Speaking Of The First Amendment
    Supreme Court

    RSS Feed

we  the  people.

LET  YOUR  VOICE  BE  HEARD:


ABOUT

Who We Are

​Leadership

ISSUES

1st Amendment

TAKE ACTION

Donate

​Contact Us
® Copyright 2024 Protect The 1st Foundation