Black Collegian News & Views

I Fear That Censorship Is on the Rise

By Darryl D. Smith
Black College Wire

It doesn't take much to get a revolution started. These days it's harder, as there is a lack of courageous people in the world. However, in the past few years, there has been a silent revolution of sorts among newspapers at historically black colleges and universities.

Michael Dunlap/The News-Star In January, Darryl D. Smith held up a leaflet he posted around the Grambling State University campus protesting the paper's suspension.

In 2003, the Script at Hampton University became a victim of censorship when Acting President JoAnn W. Haysbert seized 6,500 copies of the paper. Needless to say, the backlash was tremendous and is still ongoing. Haysbert did not stay at the university for long after the blatant censorship.

Normally, people learn from others' mistakes. That was not the case at my school, Grambling State University. In January, in an attempt to control negative publicity, the administrators decided to suspend our paper, The Gramblinite. However, after a backlash, they unsuspended us and even claimed never to have suspended us in the first place.

Sadly, even after this incident, I feel that another university newspaper will undergo the same treatment. Whether it be suspension, pulling of papers or the shutdown of the newspaper's Web site, a collegiate newspaper will see censorship sooner rather than later.

It's a sad world when censorship is used to cover up the truth. It would be different if the respectable newspapers mentioned were libeling the university, but these newspapers are reporting what is true and being punished for it. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not lie," but I guess, sometimes, you can be punished for doing the right thing.

As the use of censorship grows, I fear that future journalists will face a similar fate as Judith Miller. Miller is the former New York Times journalist who spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify about her conversations with then-vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is accused of leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press.

Does this mean eventually journalists will be jailed for reporting the truth or disobeying blatant censorship rules?

Certainly, I hope not, but I'm seeing a scary trend among college administrators. They are constantly under fire from the local media and want to use their school newspapers as public relations tools instead of as miniature real newspapers. When this occurs, it becomes harder for the students, professors, community and alumni to tell the facts from the fluff material.

Even as we face criticism for not being "true" to our school, we have a journalistic responsibility to report the truth, whether people like it or not.

Because of this responsibility, we have to juggle our "trueness" and our responsibility to the truth. Honestly, journalists are married to the truth.

When the truth is censored, so are we. Marriage is a partnership, and the censors know it. They feel that if they can stop journalism, they can stop the truth. However, journalism never stops, even when censored at the highest level.

So continue to fight, my fellow journalists. The longer the fight, the greater the win.

Darryl D. Smith, a student at Grambling State University, is editor in chief of the Gramblinite.

Posted Feb. 22, 2007