Stanford Student Reporter will not face charges to protest against arrest

Stanford – A student journalist at the University of Stanford will not face criminal charges related to his arrest last June while covering a group of pro -Gaza demonstrators who barricaded themselves inside the president’s office, after months of public pressure from the defenders of the free standard to erase the name of the student.

On Thursday, the office of the District Prosecutor of the County of Santa Clara announced that he would not deposit the accusations against Dilan Gohill, who was one of 13 people, including many students, who were arrested on June 5 after the takeover of the office.

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The DA office, which does not publicly announce public decisions, with the exception of large -scale cases, said that his investigation had confirmed Gohill’s opinion according to which he was anchored with a group of demonstrators but had not participated in their actions.

“This office supports a free press and recognizes that the law gives latitude journalists to do their job in
Keep the public informed, ”said prosecutor Jeff Rosen on Thursday in a statement. “We have no evidence that this student has done something other than covering this event as a journalist.”

Rosen’s office added that he was still examining the cases of others left.

In the months that have followed since his arrest, the defenders of the freedom of disposition representing journalists and lawyers gathered to oppose the concept of criminal accusations for Gohill, and deplored the time that the District Prosecutor’s Office took to make a decision. The office argued that it was looking for a complete image of the situation and that it expected information from the Stanford Public Security Department to complete its load assessment.

Gohill covered a demonstration which was part of a national movement led by pro-Gaza students, involving camps and demonstrations to urge universities to decline in companies related to the Israeli government or army. In Stanford, a camp was dismantled by the University, a decision that was followed by a ban on campus on night camps.

During the barricade situation, the authorities say that hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage were inflicted inside the office building. Elsewhere during the demonstrations of the June campus, the school sandstone structures of the school were degraded with graffiti of blasphemies, although it is not clear which was responsible for graffiti, because several groups, including individual demonstrators and counter-demonstrators, were on campus that week.

The university ended his administrative examination of Gohill in January and refused to request disciplinary measures for him, which made the decision to accusing the point of collision remaining for supporters who considered controversy as a clear example of journalistic activity protected by the Constitution. Critics also challenged the university which did not take public position to defend criminal charges.

In a statement published after the abolition of the disciplinary investigation, Gohill said: “Independent student journalism is crucial and my arrest as a first -year journalist and Stanford’s response threatens the values ​​that the institution claims to support. I remain deeply concerned about the fact that the actions of the university had a frightening effect on the free capacity of the press and student journalists to share vital information without fear of reprisals. »»

His lawyer previously declared that the criminal investigation notably hampered his academic results, because he was denied the recovery of his laptop, his mobile phone, his course notes and other study documents.

It is a story in development. Come back for updates.

Originally published: March 6, 2025 at 9:01 PST