Politics, Policy & PowerSeptember 19, 2023
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A View From the Ground
News and information about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from the URL Media network.
Credit: iStock
✍🏽🚫 Student journalists nationwide face administrative censorship and challenges: From shedding light on a sexual abuse scandal to a hired school principal who fudged where she completed her master's and doctoral degrees, student media has played a crucial role in reporting breaking news stories and hidden truths that have made a significant impact on communities with news deserts as well as the broader media ecosystem. In an era of information overload, student media has also given youth a platform for telling and owning their stories and provided aspiring reporters with the skills to lead the future of news. However, student journalists and youth journalism advocates say censorship is a barrier to exercising their right of free speech. Prism has more.
The federal courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. pictured in May after a hearing in the Hamline University lawsuit. Credit: Becky Z. Dernbach for Sahan Journal
📚🚫 Judge keeps religious discrimination claim of former Minn. art history teacher in federal court: Earlier this year, the New York Times wrote a story about Hamline University's dispute with a former adjunct professor, Erika López Prater, who was fired from her job last year for showing a visual depiction of the Prophet Muhammad during an Oct. 6 online lecture. Following López Prater's departure, Hamline University, a small private university in St. Paul, Minnesota, continued receiving national attention. But Sahan Journal has followed the story since its early days when it first reported that López warned her students about the content and allowed Muslim students to opt out of the lecture.
More recently, the outlet reports the former art history professor filed a lawsuit against Hamline alleging religious discrimination, defamation, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, whistleblower law violations, and a breach of contract. Read more about this developing story.
Taken August 28th, 1963, Washington D.C, United States. Colorized by Jordan J. Lloyd. Credit: Unsplash
🎙️👥 Whose vote counts? Former Fla. Prosecutor Monica Worrell and political lawsuits: Our Body Politic host Farai Chideya interviews former state attorney Monique Worrell about running for office again after being suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis last month. Then Grisby Bates, co-host of OBP and founding member of NPR's "Code Switch" team, interviews Michigan State Representative Donavan McKinney about a lawsuit over new legislative maps that claims to violate the Voting Rights Act.
🎧 Listen to the full episode here — and leave the show a voice message at 929-353-7006 if you'd like to suggest an upcoming topic.
What's Your View?
A former art-history professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota warned her students last fall that she would show a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad during an online lecture. She said students of the Islamic faith could opt out of seeing it. When a student complained, Hamline fired the professor. What's your take on this issue?
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