This item would be normal - just another student ejected for trying to tape a Tipper Gore lecture at American University. It is long established that you have to ask permission to tape someone, and that public speakers very often decline to give permission. On the other hand, the student - who runs a news website - was acting (at least in some sense) as a journalist (indeed, critics say that his website was the cause of his being singled out for harsh action). The article also contains undertones of a trend at American universities whereby "the school's actions are part of a trend of colleges using restrictive discipline to silence critics." As a one-time student journalist I can say that this trend is nothing new, but with online publishing there are now many more critics. It's a lot harder now, with so many voices, but I think that society in general and universities in particular (who are notoriously thin-skinned) need to learn to live with and abide by things like freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
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