Over 100 people have signed a petition in support of The Badger after a dispute with the Students’ Union about an article.

The Students’ Union allege that last week’s edition was not “signed off in the correct way”.

A Union staff member had concerns over the legality of one article in the paper and felt it should not go to print.

Despite this, the issue was still sent to print.

The editor later sought independent legal advice.

The Students’ Union requested that the edition should not be distributed due to legal concerns.

The Editor has since been suspended from his post, pending the result of investigation launched on Monday (28th).

Daniel Green has been announced as the Acting Editor and will serve in the interim.

The Badger team protested the decision to suspend their democratically-elected Editor, saying in a statement: “We strongly feel our editorial independence has been compromised.

“We are writers. We write about arts, sports, science and our opinions. We report news. We don’t want to argue with the Union. We just want to write. The students of Sussex deserve to have an editorially independent newspaper.”

The Students’ Union released their own statement, saying: “Any legal action could be costly and could threaten the Union. The topic of the article is not of concern, however the way it has been covered leaves us open to legal challenge.

“We have a responsibility to protect the Union and its student members which is why we didn’t want to publish an article that we believe puts us at risk of legal action”.

In protest, Badger team members and supportive students took the decision to distributed copies of the issue with the controversial story removed with scissors and black marker pens.

The dispute has attracted both local and national attention.

At the time of going to print, the Editor remains the subject of an ongoing investigation and the controversial article has not been republished.

By Miriam Steiner

Categories: News

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