[Advisors] Request for action: The Student Press Freedom Act...an amazing initiative from a new generation of activists

[Marita Moll]

Hello advisors. I have received a note from one our members, Darrell 
Evans (Canadian Institute for Information and Privacy Studies), 
regarding a need for endorsements from individuals and organizations to 
support an initiative by two student journalists in B.C. petitioning the 
province for legal protection for student journalists following various 
incidents of censorship of student newspapers. (see details below). The 
students have been working closely with various public interest legal 
organizations and have drafted some legislation that would address the 
issue.

I am seeking your input on whether it would be appropriate for TC, as an 
organization, to support this. I have no problem supporting it 
personally and would urge others to consider such action. This kind of 
grass roots activity is important and should be encouraged.

Marita


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: The Student Press Freedom Act...an amazing initiative from 
a new generation of activists
Date: 	Fri, 21 Jan 2022 18:45:23 -0800
From: 	SPFA Campaign <spfacampaign at gmail.com>
To: 	mmoll at ca.inter.net
CC: 	Darrell Evans <darrellevans.ciips at gmail.com>



Hello Marita,

Thank you for your time with this matter, we truly appreciate it.

As Darrell mentioned, we are a pair of high school student journalists 
from Vancouver, BC. We are respectively the Managing Editor and 
Editor-in-Chief of The Griffins’ Nest, a student newspaper operating out 
of Eric Hamber Secondary School.

Last spring, for our final issue, The Nest wrote an editorial on the way 
in which our school district makes decisions. As a result of writing 
this article, we faced censorship and challenges from our school’s 
administration and the District. After reaching out to several different 
organizations, and the assistance of the British Columbia Civil 
Liberties Association, the newspaper was published in its uncensored 
entirety. This dispute was one of many challenges school officials posed 
in effort to prevent the publication of The Nest's articles throughout 
the year.

Following a year of attempted censorship, we decided to write the 
Student Press Freedom, (“SPFA”), to uphold our Charter rights and 
protect student journalism in BC.

The SPFA's necessity has been proven by the ongoing press freedom 
obstructions from our school district since returning to school in 
September. Other student publications have also affirmed the need for 
protection of specifically student journalists.

We’ve worked with several lawyers who volunteered their time to review, 
revise, and comment on the SPFA concept until a solid draft was complete.

The SPFA takes some legislative inspiration from the Student Press Law 
Center’s New Voices Act, passed in 15 US states as of this year.

To date, the Student Press Freedom Act has been endorsed by some of the 
biggest names in law and journalism, including the X-University 
(formerly Ryerson) Centre for Free Expression, BC Freedom of Information 
and Privacy Association, Canadian Institute for Information and Privacy 
Studies, Canadian University Press, Student Press Law Center (United 
States), BC Youth Council, Youth Political Assembly, as well as several 
student newspapers, including the Tupper Times, Britannia Bruin, NWSS 
Student Press, Daily Wale, and our own Griffins’ Nest.

An endorsement from you would greatly strengthen our campaign’s ability 
to be taken seriously, and ability to fulfill our goal: to implement the 
SPFA into law.

Please find two PDFs attached to this email, one plain text and one 
annotated version of the SPFA for your reading. More information can be 
found on our website at www.spfacampaign.org <http://www.spfacampaign.org/>.

We would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have for us, 
or even have a general conversation regarding the SPFA and our 
experiences, either over email or we can set up a time for a call.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

Best,
Spencer Izen & Jessica Kim


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