Politics Editor, Andy 'Frodo' Blunt questions: what is the function of Huddersfield Student?
I was given this blog to rant on things that crop up of a political nature, so here it goes: censorship is something that every paper will eventually have to face and, whilst looking through the archives of the Huddersfield Student, I found a front page article which made me think.
It was from 2003. The President of the time had stepped in at the last minute to stop a front page article that showed the Students’ Union in a bad light. The newspaper editor of the time then saw fit to change the front page article to photos of the subeditors with gaffer tape over their mouths and a message to all students about what the President had done.
With recent events within the Students’ Union surrounding who controls the paper in mind, I would like to put the question to anyone who wishes to have their say: is the Huddersfield Student autonomous and here to report about the students and the Students’ Union (as after all, how could that article have been printed were it not?) or is the Huddersfield Student a paper of the Students’ Union?
Personally, I think from previous editions of the paper, the former is more likely, but at the end of the day, the Students’ Union is mandated to maintain relevance to the changing demographic of the student body.
So what do we want? A paper which reports campus news or one that advertises it?
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That seems oddly familiar and reminds me of certain events that occured last year over student media based projects, It seems that this time though the Students won over in the end.
Report News. But this brings up and interesting question which, for me, cannot be solved.
The student newspaper is run by the Students, but the students work for the Union. This student newspaper will never be completely autonomous because of this fact.
In comparison to national, or even local media, it would be like to Daily Mirror being run by the government…
That being said, the students that are elected are elected to represent the students and should not worry about upsetting the Union, or the University, unless the newspaper is printing incorrect information.
Lets just print whatever the hell we want so long as it accurate
BOOOO to censorship
To be fair, neither I nor any of the other editors or contributors are paid at all by anyone- so we’re not technically working for the Union, University or anywhere and only really have a duty to the people who put us in the positions- the voters (ie: all we wonderful students).
Also, last year (I can’t remember which issue it was- the last one I think) there was a story published regarding the University censoring students’ work. It wasn’t particularly unbiased though.
I think liable and lies go without saying
PS: Jordan, as a contributor you do have log-in details and a fancy picture if you want to use that to comment instead? Just log in using the form on the left-hand side of the page
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What my log in details? don’t I have to register?
No, no. They should have already been sent to you.
I’ll reset them and FB them over.
[...] officials say? If that rule was followed, we would never get honest news. In the same way as Huddersfield Student, the BBC will have to report the truthand offer different sides of an issue, irrelevant of who it [...]