Staff Editorial
There is no such thing as privacy in a public place and this is something that the University of Missouri’s mass media professor Melissa Click should have been very aware of.
Last Monday, University of Missouri’s president, Tim Wolfe, announced that he was resigning. His decision came as a result of racial tension due to lack of racial diversity on the campus. The next day, protestors known as Concerned Student 1950 were in the spot of attention due to a confrontation they had with a Mizzou student trying to take pictures.
Tim Tai, a photojournalism student, was hired by ESPN that day to shoot photos of the protestors. While he was trying to do this, Melissa Click, a mass media professor on that campus told him he didn’t have the right to take pictures and to respect their privacy. The other protesters started chanting, telling him to leave.
As a student newspaper, we feel concerned that student journalists in other campuses are being attacked while trying to report on campus issues. Just because we aren’t on a major publication and on a student newspaper, does not mean are First Amendment Rights can just be ignored or dismissed.
If you don’t want attention, don’t do things that ask for attention. If you only want certain people to be part of your protests, don’t protest in a public place and then ask for privacy. Additionally, if you are teaching at a university with one of the top journalism schools in the country, don’t embarrass your credentials and the university by aggressively trying to deny a student his basic first amendment rights. You know those same rights which allow you to be in a public place protesting something you don’t agree with.
Tai should have been allowed to take those photos just as Click and the other protesters were allowed to stand out there protesting.
It makes absolutely no sense to shun someone that is trying tell readers or viewers why you are having this protest.
According to Click’s profile on Mizzou’s website, she holds a Ph.D in communications and some of her studies focus on media literacy. We would hope that if she earned a Ph.D and has dedicated research to media literacy, she should know that there is no such thing as privacy in public. She should also know that Tai, just like her and the other protesters, has First Amendment rights that include freedom of speech, press and assembly.
