ListopadSteveValley City  (CSi) Valley City State University will host a meeting with U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp and supporters of the John Wall New Voices Act of North Dakota (HB 1471) on Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 3:30 p.m. in the Norway Room of the VCSU Student Center.

The John Wall New Voices protects high school and college student journalists from direct and indirect censorship and reasserts their First Amendment rights after a 1988 Supreme Court decision (Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier) stripped those rights. Since the bill passed the North Dakota House and Senate unanimously and was signed in to law in April 2015, more than 20 states are working to replicate North Dakota’s success.

New Voices Act supporters are meeting with Senator Heitkamp to determine if there is anything that can be done at the federal level to support the other states now working on their own legislation.

VCSU’s Steven Listopad, assistant professor and director of student media, was a leading advocate of the New Voices Act. He received a Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award at a reception at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sept. 29, 2015, in recognition of his efforts in support of the legislation.
The New Voices Act is named in honor of the late John Wall, a former high school teacher and North Dakota legislator who died in 2014. Wall, a 1970 VCSU alumnus, served five terms in the North Dakota House following retirement after 34 years teaching English and journalism at Wahpeton (N.D.) High School and Sargent Central High School in Forman, N.D.