The University of Toronto (U of T)’s media relations department is coming under fire for telling student journalists from the Ubyssey, University of British Columbia (UBC)’s independent student paper, that they only respond to their own student media “due to the high volume of requests.”
Charlatan writers and editors have received a similar response in the past when requesting interviews from the U of T.
This response is troubling, because it sends the message that student journalists’ work is not taken seriously because they are students, so responding to them is not a priority.
Student media serve as training grounds for aspiring journalists. Denying their requests does them a disservice, because it deprives them of learning opportunities.
As institutions of learning, universities should be especially open and available to student journalists’ inquiries for interviews. Quite often, this is not the case.
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) put out a statement in support of the Ubyssey and all student journalists.
“It’s unacceptable for our post-secondary institutions to ignore media requests from student journalists,” said Evan Balgord, vice-president of the CAJ, in the statement. “It’s the role of student newspapers to cover their schools and often it’s student media that break stories holding institutions accountable.”
A recent example of this is University of Ottawa (U of O)’s French student paper La Rotonde, which broke the news about the university’s student federation executives facing allegations of fraud.
Institutions, especially universities, should acknowledge the important work student journalists do, and give them the same opportunities they give to other mainstream media outlets.
