With the challenges faced by student journalists ––including ever changing technology, threats from school administration and declining participation–– come advocates ready to fight for them. According to some reporting, censorship is one of the biggest challenges student journalists nationwide are facing. At both the high school and collegiate level, some administrations can exercise prior review, previewing content before publishing, as well as prior restraint, controlling what student publications can and cannot cover.

According to the Student Press Law Center, "every national journalism education group condemns mandatory administrative prior review as the wrong way to teach journalism.” Prior review practices can deter students from covering potentially controversial stories because of fear of consequences from school officials. This inhibits their ability to truthfully and comprehensively fulfill their obligations to their communities as reliable news sources.

“Just recognizing that not all students in Kentucky can just publish a story and that some students have to wait 10 days before it can get approved by their principal,” Milana Ilickovic told The New Edu, explaining how censorship affects students locally. Ilickovic is student coordinator at Bullitt East High School for Kentucky’s New Voices campaign.

New Voices is a “student-powered” movement organized by the Student Press Law Center (SPLC). SPLC’s mission is to defend the first amendment free press rights of student journalists and one way they work to do this is through the advancement of New Voices legislation.

“It basically prohibits any opportunity for student censorship,” Ilickovic explained about the legislation, “It basically means that the truth can be told by a student journalist and that we’re honestly treated like real journalists.”

New Voices legislation enshrines free speech protections for student journalists in state law and establishes protections for advisors of student publications as well. 

“I've seen what can happen when the goals of student journalism do not align with the goals of administrators, both at the school level and the county level or otherwise,” Liz Palmer, the Journalism and Communication Department Chair at duPont Manual High School in Jefferson County, said. “In those instances, it can be very difficult to continue to be a Journalism Advisor when you're also worrying about whether or not you're going to have a job because your students are speaking out in ways that are, I think, critically important.”

Currently New Voices legislation has been passed in 18 states including California, Colorado, West Virginia and Illinois. The bill has been introduced in Kentucky’s legislature every year since 2020 without much success. However, thanks to the work of Ilickovic and her team, the bill has gained more attention in Frankfort this Legislative session. 

“I think this year our efforts have been pretty big in getting other senators to at least recognize the bill. So my hope is that people start taking the issue more seriously and that people start hearing student voice,” she said.

The Kentucky New Voices team spent this year writing letters and emails, meeting with Senators and trying to spread the word about their bill. 

“The main thing is raising awareness, telling your friends, I think that's gonna be the quickest that we can achieve our goal with this bill,” Ilichovic said. While the bill did not ultimately make it out of committee, the team was able to educate many lawmakers about the importance of student voice. 

“I feel like we're at a really critical moment where the problem is really great, but also the desire to solve it is great as well,” Sophie Mode said. Mode is a senior advisor at the Youth Journalism Coalition, another leading student organization in the world of journalism advocacy.

After seeing the state of student journalism in New York City, where only one in four public school students has access to a journalism publication at their high school, a group of students, educators and advocates came together to form the Youth Journalism Coalition (YJC) to fight for journalism equity in NYC.

“YJC is a coalition of over 250 students, teachers, journalists, service providers, higher education professionals and people from across all different fields who are really focused on youth journalism equity,” Mode said.

One of YJC’s recent initiatives was working to pass a city council resolution that called on the Department of Education to provide support for a student newspaper at every high school.

“It's been great to have a lot of advocates and to be able to work with the Council in the way that they have and also to just have them be receptive to students,” Liza Greenberg, a student leader at YJC, said. 

Another major initiative of YJC is an initiative called Journalism For All. Journalism for All is a free journalism curriculum developed by the YJC in collaboration with City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. High schools from across the city could apply to be chosen in the inaugural cohort. 

“We're starting with 30 schools, but we hope that this is like a model and a curriculum that can be expanded citywide for every public school to have a newspaper,” Greenberg said. 

The interest in schools wanting to be a part of Journalism For All indicates that there is still a desire for student publications and they play an invaluable role in communities. 

“There's just so many amazing benefits of journalism, both for students who participate in journalism programs, students who are consuming the materials that they create, even community members who are going to their publication for their news,” Mode said. 

Additionally, research has found that an overwhelming number of students believe schools should teach media and news literacy. Student publications are incredible platforms to teach such skills.

Whether they are at the state capitol advocating for New Voices legislation or in City Hall expanding journalism equity, student journalists are stepping outside of the newsroom, creating better opportunities for fellow students to come.

“You're opening doors for other student journalists to feel the same passion that I did,” Ilickovic said about why she’s so committed to the New Voices campaign.