From the Student Press Law Center newsletter:

The Student Press Law Center was founded in 1974 to make sure that advocates for a free press on campus always had the best legal support money can’t buy. As you start the new school year, we recommend a “press freedom checkup” that starts with, first, examining the publications/student media policies, bylaws or other governing documents at your institution (which sometimes have a sneaky way of changing over the summer when nobody’s looking), and second, getting up-to-date on the state laws that might enhance your publication’s defenses.

1. Does your news organization have legal protection against censorship? Consult the SPLC’s legal guides for college and high-school media and find out the state of your legal rights – and how to improve them. (And we’ve got a First Amendment research guide focusing on broadcasters as well.)
2. The role of a faculty adviser is an especially challenging one, and the SPLC has prepared some tip sheets for educators trying to avert – or survive – a press-freedom controversy.
3. In this YouTube video, SPLC’s Frank LoMonte explains how the First Amendment operates in schools and colleges, and where the holes in the constitutional safety net are.
4. The New Voices press-freedom movement has resulted in new state statutes protecting the rights of journalists in Illinois, Maryland and North Dakota. Bills are pending right now in Michigan, Minnesota and New Jersey, and active New Voices chapters are at work identifying sponsors for legislation all over the country, including Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Washington and Wisconsin. Find out if there’s a New Voices group working to reform the law in your state, and if not, get in touch with SPLC about starting one.
5. There are 5,900 state legislative seats up for grabs this year, and students reporters can use this interviewing tip sheet to put the rights of scholastic journalists on local candidates’ agendas.

And just for fun – and in time for Halloween – this zombie video will scare some sense into the censors.