University Newspaper Punished for Coverage

Funding was slashed for the student newspaper at tax-funded University of Memphis, explicitly over editorial decisions

TENNESSEE — The student newspaper at the University of Memphis is protesting a budget cut it believes to be a direct response to the past year's content.

The school's seven-member Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee voted near the end of the school year to slash The Daily Helmsman's budget by 33 percent. The newspaper will receive $50,000 from student activity fees this publication year, as opposed to $75,000 last year. …

Boozer believes the fact that these content-related complaints took center-stage in the budgeting process makes this a clear First Amendment violation.