The Maryland Terrapins Athletic Department hasn’t built a strong reputation for understanding the role of the free press this football season, and it sounds like they need a much-needed refresher.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) announced Friday on social media that the department has agreed to their First Amendment training.
That follows an incident in which campus police were called about two Maryland student reporters for “suspicious activity” while they waited outside the football facility to potentially interview players after head coach Mike Locksley’s firing.
Nolan Rogalski and Jude Wilkenfeld, two student sports reporters for the Testudo Times, Maryland’s SB Nation affiliate, went to Jones-Hill House, Maryland’s football practice facility, to try to get comment from players after news of Locksley’s firing broke. According to Rogalski’s social media account, an athletics staffer photographed them, and campus police were dispatched after a call about suspicious activity. Two police cars then arrived at the facility, and one officer took the reporters’ IDs and asked them to leave.
“Today’s events definitely served as a reminder of how important student journalism is on our campus and across the country,” wrote Wilkenfeld on X later.
“Student reporters should be able to do their jobs in public spaces without fear of unnecessary police encounters,” read FIRE’s post on X. “We appreciate Maryland Athletics’ willingness to address these concerns. Public universities — including their athletic departments — have a duty to protect press freedom, not intimidate those exercising it.”
The incident also follows Maryland Athletics’ restrictive press conference policy for Locksley’s media availabilities this season, which does not allow reporters to ask follow-up questions.
It’s understandible that a college athletics department wants to control the narrative, especially when things are going poorly for your football program, but that can’t come at the cost of the freedom of the press guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. That’s especially true for a public university like Maryland, which is accountable to the state and its taxpayers.
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