Legislators in Wisconsin voted Wednesday to include a provision in the state’s budget that would expel an independent and non-partisan investigative journalism group from the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
On a 12-4 vote, with Republicans in the majority, the Joint Finance Committee approved a provision barring the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from occupying any facilities overseen by the University of Wisconsin’s board of regents system and prohibiting university employees from working with the center.
The center, which collaborates with other news organizations to promote investigative journalism in the state, receives no funding from the university and its budget is financed by private foundations, individuals and news organizations. It has used two officies on the school’s campus for the past three years.
Andy Hall, executive director of the center, told the Journal Sentinel that he was “blindsided” by the provision, but the group intends to mount “an aggressive response.”
[Image via Shutterstock / Modella]
