Why Journalists Must Remain Independent.

A LA SALLE UNIVERSITY professor held a symposium that involved strippers.

The student newspaper found out about the stripper event (which involved students paying $150 for an ethics seminar). But the university told the student journalists that they could not publish any information until a full investigation was performed by the university.

Should the students have run the news story anyway? Can the university censor the newspaper?

The faculty advisor told the Inquirer, "This is a private university. La Salle publishes the paper and is responsible for its contents. There was never resistance to the idea of doing the story, only to publishing it prematurely."

Unlike the Temple News, the La Salle student newspaper is not an independent operation. It is an organization owned and operated by the university.

City Paper ran the story. Since the story was then public, the La Salle students wanted to run the story. University officials were still reluctant.

The university finally gave in but set up parameters: the story could not run above the fold, which would place the story in the windows of honor boxes, creating a perceived importance.

The La Salle students protested by leaving the top half of the newspaper blank and running the paper as in the image above.

What would you have done?

(the image above comes from the Inquirer)