Friday, April 06, 2007

Good Journalism

The Ryerson student newspaper "The Eyeopener" recently published a feature article investigating the Canadian Federation of Students, of which Ryerson is a member.

What's unique about this article isn't that it was written, or that it details the failures and foibles of the federation, what's unique is that it hasn't yet been pulled from the newspaper's website. Just about every time a student newspaper reports on the CFS in what can be seen as a negative way, they receive threats of legal action from the federation and are forced to rescind their reporting.

The Eyeopener did, in fact, receive a letter from CFS lawyers (which has been posted on The Eyeopener website) but the editors there are brave enough (or have sufficient financial and legal resources) to stand behind their reporting.

All of this has prompted Maclean's magazine to take a look at this continuing process of legal intimidation from the CFS and their attempts to silence the student press.

Thanks to the Eyeopener and Maclean's for standing up for a free press and a responsible student movement.