College newspaper censorship wrongly defended in court

A major blow was struck several weeks ago when the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous decision that allowed Kentucky State University to confiscate 2,000 yearbooks.

The University ruled that the yearbook's cover-page colors were wrong, and the current events page was of poor taste. The University blew things out of proportion. In turn, the courts failed the students.

The 1988 Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier decision, which allowed high school principals to censor publications, was a major reason the ruling was upheld. Kincaid vs. Gibson was doomed as a result of the ruling on high school publications.

There is a major difference between high school students and college students. At the college level, censorship is silly. The writing core is made up of adults who, by law, are free to speak their mind. The Kincaid decision causes major doubt as to whether adults will be able to speak their minds in university-sanctioned yearbooks.

If universities will censor for trivial reasons, they will take the opportunity to silence students who wish to speak out against the system. Therefore censorship of any kind is a danger to all.

This is the reason why journalism ethics exist. These ethics talk about minimzing harm and of seeking the truth and reporting it. The ethics serve as quidlines for journalists so censorship would not threaten the American public's freedom of speech.

Any sort of censorship, be it from the university, government, or individual citizen, is not only alarming, but it is a threat to each person's rights.