Last October, approximately 300 copies of The Daily Northwestern were tampered with — a fake front page was wrapped around copies of the actual Daily Northwestern newspaper in a dozen locations on campus. This act of vandalism interfered with the rights of student journalists to publish and distribute their work.
The board of Students Publishing Company, the publisher of The Daily Northwestern, reported the incident to campus police. The content of the fake front page had no bearing on this decision. This is not an issue of speech or parody. A fake newspaper distributed on its own, apart from The Daily Northwestern, would cause no concern. But tampering with the distribution of a student newspaper is impermissible conduct.
The State’s Attorney’s Office charged two individuals with theft of advertising services for attaching the fake front page to hundreds of copies of The Daily without our consent. Any charging decision is made by the State’s Attorney alone. As a private entity, SPC cannot bring or drop charges.
All individuals have a right to express their opinions on issues that matter to them. But just as you cannot take over the airwaves of a TV station or the website of a publication, you also cannot disrupt the distribution of a student newspaper.
