Cursor journalist Bridget Spoor’s lawsuit against the TU/e was due to start on Thursday. However, Spoor and the TU/e reached a settlement, which means a lawsuit is off the table.
There was a settlement between the university and Spoor. The agreement is that the university would pay the journalist’s legal fees. TU/e would also publish the report without black paint.
This has since been done. Spoor says he considers this development ‘a step in the right direction.’ Making the report fully public did not provide the journalist with any new information. ‘The Supervisory Board and the reporter (Spoor himself, ed.) were able to see the entire report. It therefore brought no more surprises for me,’ Spoor said.
‘The issue for me was the principle that a report investigating a report of censorship is not itself fully disclosed. I don’t think this is acceptable and I am happy that it has now been made public in its entirety anyway.’
Ombudsperson
When the report was first published, the university itself announced that it had blacklisted the position of the ombudsperson for privacy reasons. ‘This is important for the proper performance of this function. The official’s statements were visible, however, so that the readability of the report was not affected and so that it did not affect the clarity of the conclusions and recommendations,’ the TU/e informed.
Nevertheless, after consulting with the ombudsperson, the TU/e could eventually agree with Spoor’s demand to make the name public. Finally, the university also found it reasonable to reimburse Spoor’s legal fees. ‘This is customary in this kind of case,’ a spokesperson said.
Recommendations
Whether the settlement completely ends the matter is not yet clear. In a LinkedIn message, Spoor says she is still looking forward to a concrete and measurable commitment on how the report’s recommendations will be implemented. To this end, she has requested a meeting with the TU/e Supervisory Board. ‘This is not only good for the independence of Cursor, but for the entire organisation,’ she wrote.
However, to what extent it will come from a concrete commitment is not known. ‘We already indicated when the report was published that we embrace the committee’s advice and endorse its recommendations. But also that we had been working on improvements on behalf of Cursor for over six months at that time, which are along the same lines. We have continued this since the publication and we are taking all the recommendations into account as best we can,’ explains a TUe spokesperson.
Source Studio040
For Eindhoven news: Chatali Sengupta
