By Charlotte Sutton, The Inquirer’s managing editor

The third session of the workshop kicked off with Jeffrey Heng, a photography student who completed the writing program last year. He told his peers about New Voices, the effort to pass state laws protecting student press freedom.

So far, he said, 18 states have passed such laws to stop censorship of any material that doesn’t meet the 1969 Tinker Standards, meaning it is not libelous, an unwarranted invasion of privacy, illegal, or incites students to disrupt school operations. Pennsylvania so far is not among them, Jeffrey said, inviting students to get involved.

Next up were journalists on The Inquirer’s Opinion desk: Richard Jones, managing editor for Opinion; Luis Carrasco, deputy opinion editor; and editorial writer Paul Davies; who impressed the writing students with their passion for opinion journalism. 

“News is about how the world is,” Jones said. “Opinion is about how it ought to be.” 

Carrasco noted that he has heard doubts about the wisdom of opinion pages in these partisan times when so many people get all their news from their social media feeds. “But we are needed now more than ever to cut through the clutter,” he told the students. “We don’t tell people what to think. We give them something they may not have considered.”

Opinion writers, unlike news reporters, don’t have to present all sides of the story, said Davies, though all three discussed the importance of a solid reporting background for their work.

“Your opinion has to be backed up with data and facts, so you can make your argument as strong and bulletproof as you can,” Davies said. “My favorite part of the job is holding people in power accountable.”

Students gathered after lunch to hear from a surprise speaker. Mister Mann Frisby, a member of NABJ-Philadelphia, who started in journalism during high school, shared a career trajectory that has included news reporting, book writing, documentary filmmaking, and much more.

“Everything comes back to journalism,” said Frisby, who as a Philly high school student was mentored by Acel Moore and wrote articles for the Daily News even before he got to college at Pennsylvania State University.

He kept his audience enthralled with gripping stories, starting with the time he and fellow interns insisted that Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. answer their tough questions about the MOVE bombing seven years earlier.

As the first reporter the Daily News hired straight out of college, Frisby covered any number of tough stories, including the killer who abducted and murdered a college student along the Blue Route, and the mother who killed her own daughter, then pretended to lead the search party.

Even now, as Frisby completes his memoir that’s due out next year and prepares to film his next documentary, “I’m still using journalism every day,” he said.

He also shared what he called his first big lesson as a young reporter. Frisby spent an evening dancing at a Philly nightclub on a night off. The next day at work, his colleagues were buzzing about the nightclub shooting, and Frisby had to admit he’d been there – and had seen Sixers great Allen Iversen in the crowd – but didn’t think to call the city desk with the news. 

The lesson: “I’m always on,” Frisby said.