California Game Law Architect Moves to Protect College Newspapers

Some gamers will find this story perplexing.

California Assembly Speaker pro Tem Leland Yee (D), the driving force behind his state's video game law, plans to introduce the nation's first bill designed to protect the free speech rights of college newspapers.

Yee will hold a press conference this morning at Skyline College in San Bruno to announce the bill. Joining Yee will be a representative of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, as well as a Skyline journalism professor and the editor of the school paper.

Motivating Yee's action is a recent federal court ruling that college administrators can require student editors to submit articles for prior review before publication. Yee's bill would prohibit censorship of student newspapers at any University of California, California State University, or community college.

GP: Although this newspaper thing sounds like a great idea, given that Speaker Yee's California video game law is currently facing a free speech challenge raised by the video game industry, some head-scratching is certainly understandable. We'll check with Yee's office for his thoughts on how the two issues reconcile with one another.

UPDATE: According to Yee staffer Adam Keigwin, "the violent video game bill was about protecting children and giving parents a tool to help raising healthy kids. The state had a compelling interest. (the college newspaper bill) is about protecting college students' right to free speech and free press. These students are not minors and not affected by the video game bill, but they are very deserving of 1st Amendment Rights. Without a free college press, who will serve as the watchdog and bring sunshine to actions of school administrators? As said many times, Speaker pro Tem Yee is very committed to protecting the 1st Amendment, but his top priority has always been about protecting children and assisting working families."