In the rubble and wreck of a trashed newspaper office, UO journalism students got an object lesson in freedom of speech as well as an opportunity to practice it.

The visit to the offices of Tiempo Argentino in Buenos Aires was just part of a longer trip to South America for a group of journalism and international studies students. Their trip is recounted by instructors Peter Laufer and Will Johnson in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The experience was part of Global Education Oregon's Human Rights and Transitional Justice program in Rosario, Argentina. The 22 students practiced their Spanish, explored human rights issues and worked on news reporting skills during the UO summer program.

“We are convinced these types of experiences remind our students that their own human rights are vulnerable, especially in this era of nativism and xenophobia back home,” Laufer and Johnson write.

For the full article, see “A Front-Row Look at State-Sanctioned Terrorism” in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Also, for a first-person account of the trip, see “Crossing borders to spotlight Argentine issues, past and present” by journalism student Christian Hartwell of the School of Journalism and Communication website.