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Indiana University Fires Adviser to Student Newspaper and Bars Print Publication

NYT > Business > Media · Katie Robertson and Jon Cherry · last updated

Newsstands for The Indiana Daily Student stood empty across Indiana University’s Bloomington campus on Thursday, after a dispute that has left student journalists and press advocates accusing the university of censorship.

This week, administrators fired the Media School’s director of student media, who advised the newspaper. The director, Jim Rodenbush, said he had “no doubt” he was dismissed because he refused to order the students to stop publishing news, as he said the university had demanded.

The next day, Wednesday, the university barred the students from putting out a planned print edition of the newspaper and directed them to publish online only going forward.

“If it starts with us and we can’t fight back,” said Mia Hilkowitz, 21, a senior and a co-editor in chief of The Indiana Daily Student, “what happens to our colleagues and others in the media, not only at I.U. but at other universities across the country?”

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