University of Texas at Dallas: Administrators Fire Editor-in-Chief, Run Roughshod over Editorial Independence, Press Freedom

On September 13, 2024, the University of Texas at Dallas’s Student Media Oversight Board voted 3–1 to remove the editor-in-chief of The Mercury, UT Dallas’s student newspaper. The vote followed months of tense relations between the publication and the university stemming from The Mercury’s coverage of pro-Palestinian encampments that spring. Administrators then violated SMOB bylaws by blocking the editor’s numerous attempts to appeal, leading newspaper staffers to create a new publication without university support to avoid further administrative overreach. 

On November 12, FIRE and the Student Press Law Center wrote to UT Dallas explaining that the First Amendment prohibits the university from retaliating against the paper for its content and that the university’s message control efforts impermissibly chilled journalists’ expression. We demanded the university reach an agreement with The Mercury staff, or at least properly pay the staff for their already-completed work.