Student photographer from MU protests testifies in Jefferson City

Nearly a dozen people testified to a House Committee Monday afternoon in support for a proposed bill that would support the rights of student journalists.

The Emerging Issues House Committee heard testimony from free speech advocates, former journalism teachers and professors and current student journalists including Kirkwood High School student Meredith Wright and MU journalism student Tim Tai.

Tai was featured in a video that went viral where he was caught in the middle of a controversy while covering the MU student protests last fall.

“What happened last fall was not really anything that I found serious or I never felt that I was physically harmed,” Tai said after the hearing Monday. “It was more of just a small obstacle to try to do my job and document the events that are important to the historical record.”

On Friday, Columbia city prosecutors also announced Melissa Click, one of those teachers caught censoring another student journalist in the same video, will no longer facing charges under a new deal. University leaders have also suspended her with pay.

Committee Chairman Elijah Haahr is sponsoring the Walter Cronkite New Voices Act. House Bill 2058 would ensure that high school and college student journalists could do their job without fearing censorship from school administrators.

Rep. Haahr said some schools officials have expressed their concerns of giving up their right to prior restraint over student publications, but no one has come forward with specific things they would like to see added or changed in the bill.

“It’s been so accepted as the law of the land that nobody has been willing to challenge it,” he said. “So I think this kind of sets a new day in Missouri and a new tone for student journalists, in my opinion.”

School officials would be allowed to prevent publication of any libel or slanderous material. Administrators would also have the right to prior restraint over student media for material that would invade privacy, violate state or federal law, or create a danger to the institution.

Under HB 2058, schools would also be required to have a written student freedom of expression policy.

Tai said the legislation is important for learning purposes.

“Student publications are probably the most crucial education experience for people who want to be journalists,” he said. “It’s absolutely vital that students have access to these publications to exercise their rights to a reasonable extent.”

Both the Missouri Press Association and ACLU voiced their support for the legislation at the committee hearing.

Rep. Haahr said he expects the committee to vote on the bill by Wednesday.