‘Threatening legal action and intimidation is unacceptable’

The Circle of Editors-in-Chief (Circle, for short) condemns the fact that theTU Delft threatened to take legal action against the independent journalistic platform Delta. The Circle also calls on the executive board to exempt editor-in-chief Saskia Bonger from personal financial claims in a letter.

‘We are gravely concerned over reports that the editors of the university medium Delta have taken an article offline following legal pressure by the university. This goes against Delta’s independent position as a journalistic medium’, The Circle of Editors-in-Chief writes. The Circle represents the independent university and college media.

The letter follows threats made by TU Delft’s legal department, demanding Delta take the article ‘How confidentiality led to anxiety among I&IC staff and a loss of confidence in the Rector’ offline. The legal department accused Delta of quoting from confidential sources and stated that it would hold chief editor Saskia Bonger personally responsible for any damages incurred by the TU. Delta then took the article offline under protest.

Although critical reporting may be uncomfortable for the management, it is essential to a functioning, transparent and socially safe university

The Circle calls this threat disproportionate, the letter states. ‘Although critical reporting may be uncomfortable for the management, it is essential to a functioning, transparent and socially safe university. The fact that the university threatened to hold Delta’s editor-in-chief financially responsible for possible damages the university suffers as a result of the article is completely unacceptable.’

Although the executive board has since issued an apology for the legal threats, rector magnificus Tim van Hagen writes in an email directed at chief editor Saskia Bonger that he still believes that TU employees, and thus also Delta journalists, are forbidden from quoting confidential documents.

Independence

In the letter, the Circle calls on the executive board to reconsider its position and to guarantee Delta’s journalistic independence. ‘That includes posting the removed article back on the internet. Finally, we would like to see the editor-in-chief indemnified from any personal financial claims to ensure that the Delta editors can continue to report fairly on this critical topic in a socially safe environment,’ the letter concludes.

Text: Annebelle de Bruijn/Delta

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