At least 500 employees are to strike in Wageningen next Monday. Resource, too, chooses to join and set the website to red.
‘What will we do?’ one of our editors asked during our daily news meeting. ‘Are we striking or reporting?’ That’s an interesting question for us. Why? Because of our role on campus. Resource is an independent journalistic platform that brings news about WUR, including news as it unfolds, background stories, and opinions on everything happening on and around campus: research, education, and organisation. We are the independent “fly on the wall”, but we are also part of the WUR community.
Discussions at our news table can be intense, but this question was rapidly resolved. We stand in solidarity with the strikers. And we, too, denounce the massive cuts in research and education. Our readers are well aware that these cuts are incredibly stupid.
Finally, there is also a personal motivation. We have been making Resource magazine with a small team for many years. Until recently, it was published every two weeks. Unfortunately, Resource has also been affected by the cuts: we now publish only once a month. All extras have already been withdrawn; there is barely anything left to remove. Should there be an additional blow (in our team, too, we have a colleague with a temporary contract), our coverage will get thinner.
Furthermore, press freedom and counter-power on campuses may come under pressure if university magazines in higher education are unable to do their journalistic work properly due to budget cuts.
In short, our website will be set to red (the colour of action, ed.) on Monday. But we remain reporters, of course, so we will report on the demonstrations on Tuesday.
