UM professor fired for sexual misconduct.
News platform ScienceGuide feels intimidated by Maastricht University, accusing the university of legal intimidation and silencing the press. UM denies these accusations.
General election debate on College Tour: Pieter Omtzigt, leader of the newly formed party NSC, is very critical about internationalisation and the increased use of English in higher education. “Why teach psychology in English?”
Wall vandalism near University College Maastricht and the Faculty of Law, clearly related to the Israel–Hamas conflict.
News never stops
We were on autumn break for a week, but the news never stops. Our inboxes overflowed and we talked about work on WhatsApp. Did we end up interviewing Orlando Figes, the Russian history expert set to deliver the annual Tans Lecture? After all, the interview had been postponed several times. Yes, colleague PD replied, it took place in the middle of autumn break.
A fellow journalist elsewhere in the country wanted to know if we had deliberately left the recently fired professor’s name out of our earlier articles. It was a public legal case, so why bother? Our response: “Naming the individual doesn’t serve the public interest. He is not a widely known public figure. Moreover, he has a family we don’t want to cause any more suffering.”
Victim
The articles had already sparked discussions in the team. Could we use the term victim in our reporting (which we had done) if the court had not yet determined whether the accused had committed a criminal offence? Or was the fact that the accusers feel like victims reason enough to refer to them as such? And weren’t we being overly cautious in our first articles by not mentioning the fact that the professor in question also held a position on the Board of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences? It’s always a balancing act when it comes to reporting on individuals who have been accused of a crime. You don’t want to publicly judge people; you want to practice accuracy, fairness and balance in reporting.
Responsible journalism
In other words, you strive to practice responsible journalism. Even if it’s impossible to please everyone, as exemplified by a UM professor who accused Observant of “terrible journalism” in this case and therefore declined to speak with us. So be it.