The university magazine Cursor of Eindhoven University of Technology has been black since Tuesday. It is a protest by the editors against the ‘restriction of press freedom’. Cursor’s journalists have been feeling restricted in their work for months by the university board and the editorial board. A revealing article by Cursor about conflicts of interest at the university caused the bomb to explode. It ultimately cost editor-in-chief Han Konings the headline on Tuesday.
All messages on Cursor’s website have been made unreadable since a day. In a statement, the editors of Cursor explain why. “Cursor experiences increasing pressure from the Executive Board of the TU/e and the reed action council not to publish certain articles that are seen as undesirable.”
That judgment also affected an article about conflicts of interest at the university just before the summer. According to the editorial board, the message ‘does not meet the information needs of the TU/e community’. Shortly afterwards, pressure was put on Cursor’s editor-in-chief to take another position within the organization. This had already been urged in 2021 after the publication of another sensitive article.
University reputation
“We feel enormous uncertainty about the future of Cursor as an independent medium,” the editors wrote. This indicates that work is carried out in accordance with journalistic rules. All sources and facts are carefully checked, there is room for rebuttal. “Even when it concerns matters that are less favorable for the reputation of the university.”
Whistleblower
These arguments did not convince the university board, after which the editor-in-chief decided to withdraw the offending message due to the persistent pressure. The editor who exposed the conflict of interest in her article subsequently saw no other way than to expose the affair as a whistleblower.
On June 26, she filed an official complaint with the university. He or she is then obliged to deal with the matter. But apparently that didn’t happen wholeheartedly. After many detours, the complaint ended up with the relevant committee, which will now hear those involved at the end of October.
Editor-in-chief gone
But even before the committee starts its hearing, the first victim already fell on Tuesday. Editor-in-chief Han Konings, who has led Cursor for more than a quarter of a century, must resign. He has been removed from his position with immediate effect.
“In this situation we cannot carry out our work properly,” the editors of Cursor write. She demands that the university magazine must be able to work uninhibited. A number of steps are necessary for this.
First of all, the current editorial board must make way for a new, independent editorial board. Cursor’s editorial staff must also have a say in finding a new editor-in-chief. And the journalistic code of conduct for university journalists, the so-called editorial statute, must be revised to guarantee Cursor’s independence.
The parties involved could not be reached for comment late Tuesday evening.