Law, Ethics & News Literacy
One of the first things I learned about in my introductory Journalism class was the Maryland New Voices Act, protecting student journalists from prior restraint, censorship, or retaliation for faithfully and truthfully producing content. While I have never been directly threatened with censorship, I have been the subject of strongly worded emails or messages asking for corrections, retractions, or apologies. I have made corrections and retractions to certain articles for factual errors, but I have always stood up for the right to free student journalism.
Visiting the Maryland State Capitol in February 2024 with colleagues from Montgomery County Regional SGA. (Photo by Allison Khani)
Standing up for
Maryland New Voices
Outside of Pitch, one of my other extracurricular activites is serving as the chair of the Grievances Subcomittee of the Special Elections Committee (SEC). The SEC regulates and monitors the running of the annual election of the Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB). This year, an amendment to the election protocols was proposed that would have banned school newspapers from endorsing SMOB candidates as a method of ensuring fairness. Knowing the Maryland New Voices Act, I made a point of order, noting that the amendment was out of order and could not pass, ensuring that student newspapers across the county can continue to endorse their preferred candidates for SMOB.
An example of Richard Montgomery's High School's student newspaper, The Tide, which endorsed Sam Ross for SMOB last year. While some newspapers (including The Pitch) choose not to endorse a candidate, they still maintain the right to do so if they choose.
Each year, the SEC reviews the protocols and proposes amendments, varying from whether or not candidates can use stickers when campaigning to setting campaign spending limits. This year, an amendment was proposed to ban students newspapers from endorsing candidates.
Because the SMOB protocols are an agreement between the countywide SGA and the Montgomery County Board of Education, passing this amendment would have required the Board to exercise prior restraint, which made the amendment out of order and moot.
Maryland Open Meetings Act
Having covered my local school board since my freshman year, I am very familiar with the workings of the Board. The Maryland Open Meetings Act requires the Board to post public notice and agendas in advance of meetings, which I use to prepare for Board meeting coverage. It also includes summaries of closed sessions, which I have used in articles about personnel (i.e., superintendent scandal). I know where to find these documents and who to talk to when I can't and therefore, knowing my way around the OMA law helps me stay on top of coverage of the Board.
BoardDocs is the online service MCPS uses to post agendas, policies, and contracts. Here, I used BoardDocs to preview the June 11 Board meeting in the article "Live updates: MCPS Board meeting 6/11."
In this front page article, I took a in-depth look at the problems and controversies surronding former MCPS superintendent Dr. Monifa McKnight. As part of the article, in the second paragraph, I used OMA-required Board closed session summaries to deduce that the Board was likely meeting to discuss McKnight's employment and future, given that they had met six times in closed session in two weeks.
Maryland Public Information Act
The Maryland Public Information Act is a crucial tool for journalists to gain access to public records like contracts, internal documents and memos. I grew familar with the protections and privileges the MPIA offers through reading reporting from local news outlets like Bethesda Today (Moco360), and have even filed MPIA requests myself for investigative pieces.
I filed a Maryland Public Information request with MCPS in January for an article about grade inflation in the school system, especially post-COVID. I requested documents showing the distribution of Grade Point Averages of high school graduates, which reflected how a much higher percentage of students were graduating with GPAs above 4.5/5.0 weighted or 3.5/4.0 unweighted.