The Ethics and Journalism Initiative held a workshop earlier this year at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute to grapple with some of those complexities, offering tangible advice to student journalists covering protests and other news on their own campuses.
Know Your Rights
Student journalists have different First Amendment rights depending on whether their university is public or private, because public universities fall under the umbrella of government entities.
The workshop, entitled Covering Your Own Campus, was moderated by Stephen D. Solomon, Marjorie Deane Professor of Journalism at New York University and founding editor of First Amendment Watch.
Solomon emphasized that the First Amendment is a limitation on government action, not private action, noting that public universities fall under the umbrella of government.
“So, if you’re at CUNY, or Ohio State, or Penn State — those administration officials must comply with the First Amendment,” Solomon said. “Private universities — like NYU and Columbia — can act without regard to the First Amendment.”
Although private institutions are not required to comply with the United States Constitution, students and faculty still expect a cultural respect for free speech.
“That’s what universities are all about. I’m not saying anything radical here, this comes from the president’s office at every university,” Solomon added. “There’s an expectation that free speech will be honored.”
But even if university administrators pledge not to interfere with student journalists covering campus protests, law enforcement officials may have different ideas. They might honor press identification from student reporters, but panel members warned the audience that police are not required to.
Sheila Coronel, the director of Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University, who advised Columbia student reporters during last year’s protests, explained why it’s important to comply with police. “A press card is great, but it’s not going to protect you,” Coronel said, mentioning that one student journalist — despite having a press pass handy — was monitored by police and accused of being “pro-Hamas.”
The Ethics of Covering Protests
When it comes to the distinction between legal rights and ethical responsibilities, Ethics and Journalism Initiative Director Stephen J. Adler pointed out that there aren’t necessarily right and wrong answers. But student reporters and editors should think about some critical issues in advance.
These include: Can you be a protester and a journalist? Should you name and photograph protesters without getting their explicit permission? What about students who are speakers at protests? Should you get comments from university officials?
Choosing to participate in a protest that you are covering as a journalist can be tricky, Adler said.
“The peer pressure on you to write favorably about the demonstrators, which is there anyway when you’re a student, gets that much greater when sometimes you’re demonstrating on that issue, and sometimes you’re reporting on it,” he explained.
Adler emphasized that the most important question to consider, regardless of whether you are demonstrating alongside other protesters or covering the event from the sidelines, is “Are you reporting factually and honestly?”
Yezen Saadah, who served as the editor-in-chief of Washington Square News, NYU’s independent student newspaper, from May 2024 to May 2025, emphasized the difference between covering protests as a student journalist and doing so as a member of the press more broadly.
Student journalists, for instance, may be more aware of the risks faced by protesters if their names and images appear in coverage of the protest.
Although Saadah noted that he urges reporters for the NYU paper to get consent from protestors for photographs and names, the Washington Square News editor also suggested that if a protestor is adamant about not being photographed or named, it’s worth considering that “the content of the protesting is more important than who is doing the actual protesting.”
Aside from asking for campus protestors’ consent for photographs, there’s also the need to ask for comment from university officials in order to get both sides.
“We always reach out to the university for comment,” Saadah said, “whether it’s a spokesperson or a member of the administration. But that never stops us from being critical. And if they don’t say anything to us — that’s the story.”
Overall, the resounding message for student journalists was to be proactive, not reactive. If you consider your legal rights and ethical responsibilities before reporting, you are better equipped to respond confidently and responsibly, make sound decisions under pressure, and stay grounded in the heat of the moment.