Graphic by Isabelle Peterson ‘28
MOUNT HOLYOKE NEWS STAFF MEMBER
Amidst detainments, censorship and protests on campuses around the country, the importance of an uncensored opinion section in student newspapers is more crucial than ever. However, since President Donald Trump has returned to office, there has been a constant attack on the First Amendment rights of many publications — particularly student publications — especially when concerning the Israel-Hamas war. On March 25, Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained in broad daylight in Somerville, Massachusetts by Department of Homeland Security officers in plain clothing. It is widely believed she was targeted for her involvement in Tufts’ student journalism.
On March 26, 2024, Öztürk co-authored an op-ed featured in The Tufts Daily, calling for Tufts to adopt Tufts Community Union senate resolutions regarding the Israel-Hamas war. Öztürk and her collaborators asked directly that Tufts acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.. This may have made her appear as a threat in the eyes of the U.S. government as the usage of the term “Palestinian genocide” may have been conflated with antisemitic terror; the phrase may also have been linked to the vocabulary of student-led protest. This perspective would put Öztürk, and various other currently detained student advocates, out of alignment with the current U.S. government’s perspectives on foreign affairs.
This idea of certain speech posing a threat to U.S. interests is born from a World War II-era law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Originally created to prevent Nazi propaganda in the United States, its broadness is now weaponized in characterizing any declaration of “genocide” in regards to the Israel-Hamas war as not only antisemitic, but as criminal. The broadness of this decades-old law allows for detainments like Öztürk’s. Therefore, student visas across the country are being revoked for supposedly inciting “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States” through their use of free speech, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Act: Specifically speech expressed though op-eds.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a press conference on March 27, was asked by a reporter “what [was] the specific action [Öztürk] took [which] led to her visa being revoked?”
Rubio answered that "Oh, we revoked her visa … [If] the reason why you're coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we're not going to give you a visa."
This statement is not only inhumane, but illustrative of the further censorship to come concerning foreign policy, criticism of the U.S. government and the ability to publish free speech.
This censorship is not only seen in universities, either, but in the wider journalistic community, including at The Washington Post.
On Feb. 26, Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and The Washington Post, posted on X about a message he shared with The Washington Post opinion staff. It reads, “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” While claiming that newspapers may have benefitted readers by providing a diversity of opinions in the past, Bezos said, “Today, the internet does that job. ”
As much as Bezos claims otherwise, it is clear how this stark change in the publishing guidelines of The Washington Post, which had previously worked to advocate all sorts of different views, is now being censored. It is certainly interesting to note that he did publish this on X, owned by Elon Musk, who has been known for utilizing his free speech to promote Nazi symbolism: Something the government did not censor from the public, despite Musk being a immigrant himself and his speech being directly in disobedience of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which was conceived to oppose Nazi propaganda.
This clear abuse of power very obviously affects everyone in America, particularly journalists, but is especially harmful for students. In the U.S., higher education is a largely international venture, with 6% of all U.S. students, 1.1 million people, coming from abroad. This means any student journalist or activist who wishes to use their free speech to be critical of U.S. actions is at risk of being targeted by the Trump administration’s agenda, which is entirely anti-immigrant.
Columbia University, for instance, has for months been filled with students advocating for the same justice Öztürk asked for from Tufts University. Here, Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student and one of the lead negotiators in Columbia's student-led pro-Palestine movement, was detained on March 8 due to his advocacy on foreign policy. On April 4, after nearly a month of his detainment, Khalil published an opinion article in the Columbia Daily Spectator addressing it “To Columbia—an institution that laid the groundwork for my abduction—and to its student body, who must not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression.” He then goes on to not only continue to criticize the university for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war, but to also acknowledge the concerning rate at which students — like Leqaa Korda, Dr. Badar Khan Sufi, and Rümeysa Öztürk — “have all been snatched by the state.” Khalil describes these detainments as “oddly reminiscent of when I fled the brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and sought refuge in Lebanon.”
Despite student detainment, many independent, student-owned newspapers continue to fight for their right to free speech, particularly within op-eds. The opinion section of a news organization is deliberately made separate from the other sections of the news, because, unlike non-opinionated journalistic reporting, op-eds strive to share the opinions of those directly in a community, and serve as a platform to allow an abundance of varying views to enter into debate with one another. Opinions are not to be taken as a unanimous forced belief, but to celebrate different ways of thinking. In this political climate, unique and critical ways of thinking channeled through free press are viewed as a threat to oligarchies, monarchs and tyranny as they emphasize what is known as the fourth pillar of democracy: Free press.
Mount Holyoke News, similarly to Columbia and Tufts’ student newspapers, remains a platform where students may publish and share their opinions. As popular news outlets crumble in submission to financial intimidation, it is important for not only opinions, but all newspapers to continue to report on the unjust political climate we are forced to live in. As more and more students’ visas get revoked, it is important that students stand and write in solidarity with their classmates. Execute your right as not only a birthright citizen, but as a student who doesn't have to live with the constant debilitating fear that their every movement is being watched in the hope of removing them from the U.S.
Sofia Ramon ’27 contributed fact-checking.
