Feb, 2001.
Volume 43, No. 18

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The Carillon brings you the weekly news from the University of Regina.

Contact:
The Editor
Newsline:
(306)-586-8867
Fax:
(306)-586-7422
Room 227
Riddell Centre
University of Regina

Student newspapers across the country are facing threats to their editorial independence this year, and the bulk of the threat comes from student governments­a problem even the Carillon has faced in its nearly forty-year history. Why do student unions so commonly attack their own peers, the student journalists, who often are some of the only people on campus who actually pay attention to what the student unions are trying to do?

At the University of Alberta, the Gateway is currently in the throes of an autonomy drive (an attempt to gain independence from the student union). The student union has been uncooperative, threatening to withhold funding and refusing to put the question to the students, forcing the Gateway to gather 2,500 signatures on a petition to hold the vote for autonomy.

The Carillon went through its own autonomy drive nearly two years ago after experiencing threats to its editorial autonomy (including the firing of the Editor-in-Chief, yours truly).

Thankfully, the Carillon managed to join the growing number of student newspapers across the country whose purse strings are no longer held by a student union of which they often have to be critical.

Last week, the Carillon ran a story about the Nova Scotian paper the Picaro, whose funding is being withheld by its student union at Mount St. Vincent University. Although student union representatives deny they have a vendetta against the Picaro and say that the newspaper was not managing its funds properly, the editors respond that the paper is being punished for mismanagement on the student union side. Either way, the students will suffer if the Picaro, the only voice they have on campus, is forced to fold because of a conflict between the two.

This week, you can read about the Link, the student newspaper at Concordia University in Quebec.

A group of three students has circulated a petition demanding the resignation of the paperıs editorial board because they are upset about certain editorial decisions. Link staff maintain they have applied the same standards to all the stories submitted, but the upset students, who have close ties to the student union (of which the Link has recently been critical because of allegations of misuse of student funds) are demanding that the paper cease to exist.

Nearly every year, there are stories in the student press about how newspapers have to fight for their right to editorial autonomy from their student union or from other powerful groups on campus. While it used to be the case a hundred years ago that most major newspapers were sponsored (and therefore influenced) by political parties, today's public certainly would not respond favorably if the federal government tried to shut down the Globe and Mail or the National Post because they ran a story critical of government action.

It is not the place of the student government to determine what the editorial slant on any story should be, even (and especially) if that same government holds the power of financial control over the newspaper. While newspapers must be financially accountable to the students who fund them, they must not be forced to bow to the will of a few individuals with vested interests.

You can show your support of (or voice your concerns about) the newly autonomous Carillon by attending our first Annual General Meeting (open to all students at the U of R), Monday, February 12 at 3:30 pm in the Multipurpose Room.