Back in the not-so-long-gone past (last year), I was a student at the School of Communication, Manipal University. During my time at the university, I also worked as a reporter for a student-run news website called The Manipal Journal, or TMJ, if you were hip enough.

TMJ not only covered campus news but also churned out local reports about the happenings in the town. Now, everyone knows Manipal is a student town, but the place has a lot more to offer apart from the “A-grade” education. One of the stories I decided to do was about how local “pubs” were selling hookah without proper licences. I was on top of it. I even went undercover as an unaware rich kid (my favourite kind of disguise) to get the scoop.

It turned out that the pub owners were paying off the cops to carry on with their business as usual without licences. I know that is a fairly common practice, but as a college student learning the ropes of being a reporter, I was literally hyperventilating as I told my editor (one of the seniors) about the story I had.

Before I could get down to writing the story, the then director of School of Communication got a call from the university authorities. The university didn’t want to run the story. We can only assume why because I was never given a proper explanation. (That didn’t stop me from making up various reasons in my head*.)

How the university found out about a story that I hadn’t even typed out yet can be the plot to the next Liam Neeson film, but my guess is that someone told someone who told another person and then that person told somebody who tweeted it out. Anyway, they did find out and the first thing they did was call the director to have a little chat. After which he spoke with my editor. Then, I was called into his office where I received a good first-hand understanding of how the real world of journalism works: “You can’t write this story,” the director told me.

I was a young student back then, scared of anything outside my comfort zone, and all of sudden I was getting threats of suspension if I went ahead with the story. So, I did the one thing that any scared young kid would do. I didn’t write that story.

But the incident got me thinking about freedom of speech and expression. In fact, I can say that this incident is one of the reasons why I’m here at Newslaundry.

After I was done beating myself up for being a coward, I realised that it’s true what they say about taking things for granted. I didn’t really feel much about my freedom to express up until it was violated. I didn’t want to press the matter further because I was scared that the university would (and they could) do something to The Manipal Journal.

Even though the website is independent of the university or any other influences, the sad truth is that it constitutes students of the university and that gives the authorities enough leverage to assert dominance.

The Devansh Mehta-incident and his fight for freedom of expression made me remember my own tryst with college authorities that can often get autocratic. Mehta and three of his friends (from St Stephen’s) started an e-zine called St Stephen’s Weekly in March this year. The website covered events that happened in the college and, like TMJ, St Stephen’s Weekly, too, was independent. But that was tested when the principal of St Stephen’s banned the website over an interview of his that was published on the site.

In an email explaining the ban, the principal said: “It is unacceptable that, despite being explicitly told not to publish anything (especially my interview before I had the time to go through and clear the text) you went ahead in defiance. It denotes an awkward failure of education and that is why I cannot take it lightly.”

But Mehta in a statement to the press said: “We mailed him a transcript but he didn’t reply. So we didn’t delay the publication.” Mehta added that, “there was nothing inflammatory in the interview. How can this be the best liberal arts college in the country if we don’t have the right to speak our minds?”

Mehta is on to something. Educational institutions should be platforms where students can express themselves freely. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. And there is no place where this right should be more valued than in an educational institution. Be it school or university, freedom of expression in a learning centre is paramount. A university is a place where students get to share ideas and are introduced to new ones. This can’t happen if students or faculty are bound by rules that violate free expression.

Even today the student-reporters of TMJ are fighting a hard battle for freedom of expression. I want to tell them that the Delhi High Court’s stay on Mehta’s suspension is a ray of hope and they are not alone in the fight.

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*The various possible reasons why Manipal didn’t let the story run. (From my imagination, for your pleasure.)

1. Hookah bars are the highlight of the town, if they were to vanish, no student would come to Manipal to enrol themselves for a course in the university.
2. The Registrar really likes hookah.
3. Something about Akshay Kumar.