school newspapers’ independence

I was reading on Inside Higher Ed about a faculty/staff newspaper at the University of Colorado that was told it was being shut down about a month ago (Silencing a Staff Voice). The newspaper was editorially independent but financed by the administration. Some of the newspaper staff believe that the cutting of the newspaper was retaliation for the reporting of a large university budget cut that the administration wished hadn’t been released to the public.

This raises the question of how editorially independent a newspaper can be if it’s sponsored by the school’s administration. In this case, the paper was free to report what it wanted, but reporting on the wrong thing could be the end of it. That doesn’t sound very independent to me.

The Baylor Lariat is supported financially by the school’s administration , which is fortunate because advertising sales were not high enough this past year to keep it alive on their own. But because of the administration’s support, the newspaper is in no way editorially independent. There are strict rules as to what the editorial board can opine about, what subjects reporters can write about and even stricter consequences for not following these rules. The job of publications director opens up every time a controversial editorial runs.

Should school newspapers that are supported by their administrations have a disclaimer admitting this fact for the sake of full disclosure? Should there be a line at the bottom of each Lariat editorial that says “This editorial is the opinion of the Lariat editorial board and does not reflect the views of Baylor administration. But the administration does have a large influence over the content of this editorial, especially if it deals with sexuality, Baptist traditions or the administration itself”? Or is it just the plight of student journalists and those that read student papers that the content they write and read is censored?