Lexington Herald-Leader | Kentucky Kernel
Kentucky Kernel managing editor and basketball writer Aaron Smith called two University of Kentucky students rumored to be basketball team walk-ons and asked them to confirm the reports. They did and Smith reported the news on Monday, prompting University of Kentucky’s sports media relations department to ban the reporter from today’s meet-the-team event. The university says Smith broke the athletic department’s unwritten policy barring media from interviewing student-athletes without first going through media relations department.
The decision to ban the writer “is so clearly a violation of First Amendment rights for the university to condition access on gathering or publishing information the way the university wants you to do it,” says Kentucky First Amendment lawyer Jon Fleischaker. || Read reactions to the university’s move.
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