Speak

[Ibby]

Today is a first for TAS.
Today, a newspaper, written by students, run by students, and most importantly overseen by students, begins its first run.
Today, the administration no longer controls our media. Today, we are exercising our rights, not as Americans or Taiwanese or Chinese but as human beings, to a free and open press.
Today, we begin a new chapter for Taipei American School.
Speak is an independent newspaper, founded in protest upon libertarian and free ideals, on a libertarian base, to provide an alternative to the school-run media.
Speak is not an anarchist newspaper. Speak is not a punk propaganda magazine.
Speak is a free and open forum to which any Taipei American School student, teacher, or administrator may contribute. Speak is an internationally-aware, rational, mature libertarian newspaper meant to appeal to both student and faculty, both youth and adult demographics. Speak is an outlet, at once creative and political, at once artistic and concrete. Speak is meant to provide a way for students to express themselves through art, through creative writing, through political writing, through school journalism, and through graphic design.
Speak is not just a newspaper. Speak is a community. Anybody may submit, anybody may join the staff, anybody may give their two cents. Speak is a newspaper for you.
But Speak is, above all else, free. Speak is not my newspaper. Speak is your newspaper. It is our newspaper. Speak is for all of us to write for, and all of us to read. And it is censored by nobody.
Do you smell that? That’s the smell of freedom.

I'm starting an independent school newspaper. I'm fed up with the one run by the administration.
That's my draft of the opening article. I hope to go to press next week, if I get enough people to submit articles.