A new survey has found that about three out of four student newspapers in Christian colleges have faced pressure from officials to edit or drop articles shortly after publication.
The Student Press Coalition (SPC), created by students at Taylor University in Indianapolis, conducted a survey of student editors in an attempt to determine how campus newspapers are affected by the press policies of Christian universities and colleges.
The editors from 136 schools belonging to the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) were asked to answer an online questionnaire about the censorship that they have faced when publishing articles.
The findings, released on May 1, indicated that 76 percent of student editors have "faced pressure from university personnel to change, edit or remove an article after it's been published in print or online."
Seventy-two percent of the participants said that faculty advisers to their paper have the authority to reject a story before publication online. Thirty-four percent reported having their articles rejected by their advisers before they were published online. Thirty percent of editors reported the same for articles that were slated for publication in print.
Forty-eight percent of the editors reported that student journalists have been asked by university officials to abandon a story in the middle of the research and writing phase.
Additional findings showed that 49 percent of the respondents have said that it is "fair to say" that their "publication is censored by someone who is not a student at some point during the print or online publication process."
Twenty-six percent said that they refrain from pursuing some stories due to their loyalty to the university. Another 20 percent admitted that the stories in their publication are affected by the "Christian culture" in their school.
Only 24 percent of the participants said that their school gives them the same freedom of the press that is seen in public universities.
Cassidy Grom, head of the SPC, said that the study was supposed to be a part of the effort to convince officials in her school to change its press policies.
"It began as an independent project to persuade our school to change its policies. But when we saw the data, we decided to go public with it," she said, according to Religion News Service.
Chris Evans, president of the College Media Association, said that censorship at private colleges was prevalent because such schools are legally allowed to impose restrictions on campus newspapers.
"It's tough because it's perfectly legal at private colleges for administrators to censor because there is no guarantee of First Amendment protections," Evans said, as reported by Religion News Service.
