(Credit: Critic.co.nz, screenshot)

New Zealand’s University of Otago established a “student media advisory board” for its student magazine Critic and radio channel Radio One, according to the Otago Daily Times.

The board is made up of “an independent chairman, ‘at least one’ experience current or former journalist, and ‘one or two’ acdemic staff with relevant expertise” and will weigh in on any publication of “controversial or sensitive content” and “sound editorial judgment” for the two outlets, the Otago Daily Times reported.

Recently, the University of Otago became “the de facto publisher” and “funding backer” for the outlets because of a “student levy agreement with the Otago University Students Association,” the Otago Daily Times explained.

The school’s vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne indicated the board would serve as a “‘critical friend’ to student media” and that the board doesn’t have “any power to compel student media to follow its advice.”  Critic‘s editor, Joe Stockman, told the Otago Daily Times that the magazine wouldn’t be OK with losing any of its “independence and editorial right to decide the publication’s final content.”