Last week, I already knew what this editorial would be about: the blackout protest of Cursor, our counterpart at Eindhoven University of Technology. The editorial team blacked out the website as a protest against the university’s executive board, which tried to prevent the publication of an article they considered unfavourable – and, while they were at it, suspended the editor-in-chief before anything had even been published. The Eindhoven administrators haven’t seemed to place much value on the journalistic freedom of their own university newspaper for quite a few years.
Horror
Then the weekend came, war with all its horrors broke out between Israel and Hamas, and Afghanistan was hit by one of the deadliest earthquakes in the past twenty years. Our own problems suddenly seem so utterly trivial. I find myself feeling this way more often lately, with the world seeming less safe in Europe as well.
Harmful
But life in Maastricht goes on, despite the suffering elsewhere in the world. So let’s talk about Cursor and the independence of university news media. The Observant editorial team has been free to do its work for years now, after a lengthy hiatus during the tenure of UM President Jo Ritzen. It’s been a long time since our foundation board (which stands between our editorial team and the university’s executive board in our legal structure, meaning the executive board can’t directly intervene in our editorial policy, let alone fire one of our members) got a rap on the knuckles from the executive board. During those years, the accusation was almost always the same: our independent reporting allegedly harmed the university.
Reader's intelligence
Cursor’s editorial statutes – good statutes are important in times like these – state that the editorial team must not harm the university’s interests. A potential death sentence for independent journalism. After all, what are those interests? Opinions may differ widely. And who decides what is harmful? The executive board? Students and staff? The Cursor editorial team? The university council? Also, what exactly is harmful? The facts coming to light as much as possible? Both sides of a contentious issue being heard, allowing the reader (an academic audience) to form their own opinion? Everyone being able to see that Eindhoven is a university like any other, where a lot of things go right and sometimes things go wrong? The publication of critical articles, rather than PR stories that insult the reader’s intelligence?
Consult counterparts
The actions of the Eindhoven executive board have done no favours to the university’s image, which they were so desperate to protect. There has been some sharp criticism in the press, a multi-page article in the national newspaper de Volkskrant, much scorn and derision on Twitter. Hopefully, the university administrators will reconsider their actions – perhaps they could consult with their counterparts in Maastricht, or for example Groningen – so that the Cursor editorial team can go back to work, with good statutes, an editor-in-chief and a truly independent editorial board (the old one was appointed by the executive board!).