How do the Delta journalists do their work? What responsibilities do they have? How is their independence guaranteed? These are all included in the new Editorial Statutes. It is a clear improvement on the previous one, writes Saskia Bonger, the Editor in Chief.
Independence is vitally important for Delta. Independence means that Delta journalists are free to choose the subjects, frame their own questions, and decide the perspective. Independence means that we can even draw on confidential items and can reveal malpractices should they arise. We can do this even if our employer – TU Delft – prefers us not to.
As the Editor in Chief of Delta, I am very pleased that that independence is frequently stated in our new Editorial Statutes that were established by the Executive Board on 24 June. I am even happier that it is explicitly stated that TU Delft ‘protects’ ‘the independence of Delta and the members of the Editorial Office’. This sounds a lot more active than the ‘entrust’ that sounded conditional in the previous Statutes.
Experience has taught us that it is better to be completely clear about Delta being independent of TU Delft in terms of content. This prevents accidents. The most painful experience now lies more than a year behind us. At the time Delta published information from a confidential document and was then censored by TU Delft. The latter should not have done that, not even according to the Editorial Statutes at the time. Legal advice had to be sought to have this fully recognised.
The crux of the matter was the question whether a TU Delft journalist is first a journalist or a TU Delft employee. Other employees may be subject to confidentiality, while journalists may quote from confidential documents if this serves the wider interest.
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The answer is clearly stated in the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists. It states ‘The journalist’s responsibility towards the public takes precedence over any other responsibility, in particular towards their employers and the public authorities.’
In contrast to the previous version, the new Editorial Statute explicitly refers to the Global Charter. This may give us rights, but it also gives us obligations. It calls for high journalistic standards, for example about truth and fact checking, that we completely support in the new Editorial Statute. We also now explicitly commit to the Guidelines of the Council for Journalism (Raad voor de Journalistiek).
The Guidelines start with ‘[Media] … monitor authorities and organisations, institutions and businesses. They play an important role in the democratic process in our society.’ At our very local context, this also applies to Delta. Through our journalism we provide our readers with news and backgrounds about events and developments at TU Delft, be they good or less good.
The new Statutes help us in this. They are an improvement as they are more condensed and clearer than the previous version and they make it absolutely clear what will happen should there be complaints about our work. While I hope that this will never be the case, instead of censorship, approaching the Council for Journalism or a civil judge would be the last resort.
The Editorial Statutes are the outcome of a long and careful process that involved a lot of people. That involvement should not be underestimated. The greatest value of the new Statutes is of course not how often the word ‘independent’ appears, but is awareness about why Delta exists, how the Editorial Office works, how journalism works, and how TU Delft should give space for this. We can keep going for years!
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Do you have a question or comment about this article?
s.m.bonger@tudelft.nl
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