More Info
Mary Beth Tinker addresses an audience of students at The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in 2014.
Photo by Eli Hiller / Flickr.com, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Upon Reflection: Students’ enduring rights to freedoms of speech and the press
Mary Beth Tinker addresses an audience of students at The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in 2014.
Photo by Eli Hiller / Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0
Mary Beth Tinker was only 16 years old when, in 1969, her name became synonymous with freedom of speech for students.
I also was a teenager when I had my initial encounters with freedom of the press and freedom of speech. They were nowhere near as consequential for the country, but they certainly left a lasting impression on me.
Decades later, students still have to fight these battles. And since tomorrow is Student Press Freedom Day, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on these experiences, both Tinker’s and mine.
Read more from this series:
- Apr. 22: Spotlight — a special resonance
- Apr. 8: The 19th* — a nonprofit news startup made for the moment
- Mar. 25: How I became a ‘pinhead’ — a news literacy lesson
- Mar. 11: Fighting the good fight to ensure that facts cannot be ignored
- Feb. 11: We need news literacy education to bolster democracy
- Jan 28: 13 lessons from our first 13 years
- Jan. 14: Media needs to get COVID-19 vaccine story right
- Dec. 17: Journalism’s real ‘fake news’ problem also reflects its accountability
- Dec. 3: Combating America’s alternative realities before it’s too late
- Nov. 12: “Kind of a miracle,” kind of a mess, and the case for election reform
- Oct. 29: High stakes for calling the election
- Oct. 15: In praise of investigative reporting
- Oct. 1: How to spot and avoid spreading fake news