Editorial Statute Erasmus Magazine

Contents

Definitions

1. General
2. EM objective
3. Editorial Board

A. Definition

B. Appointment

C. Duties

4. Editorial Team
5. Editor-in-Chief
6. Complaint handling
7. Amending the Editorial statute
8. Final provision

Definitions

For the purposes of these regulations, the terms are defined as follows:

• Awb is the General Administrative Law Act
• EM is Erasmus Magazine
• EUR is the legal entity established pursuant to public law named: Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Publisher is the party in the name of which the EM publication is published; in this statute, the Publisher is EUR
• Editorial Team is the team of permanent editors and freelance employees responsible for the preparation of EM
• Editor-in-Chief is part of and leads the Editorial Team
• Editor is a permanent member of the Editorial Team who is employed by the university
• Freelance Employee is a person who is hired by the Editor-in-Chief and submits paid contributions to EM on request
• Board is the Executive Board at EUR, an administrative body as defined in Section 1(1)(a) of Book 1 of the Awb
• ABD is the General Management Directorate
• Editorial Board is the supervisory board of EM
• Employer is EUR, duly represented by the President of the Executive Board
• Employee is a person who has an employment contract with EUR under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU)
• Publications are all journalistic productions in the form of text, image and sound or otherwise
• Complaint is an objection about a publication or journalistic conduct by EM

1. General

a. EM is the independent EUR journalistic medium.

b. EUR is the Publisher of the EM title.

c. The independent working methods of EM are determined by journalistic guidelines that are based on the NVJ Code, the Guidelines of the Netherlands Council for Journalism (Raad voor de Journalistiek) and the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalism.

d. As the Publisher, EUR shall be responsible for providing EM with the facilities and resources it needs to achieve its objective. However, EUR does not suggest content for publications.

e. Organisationally, EM is a department in the ABD.

2. EM objective

a. EM aims to provide and promote the widest and most varied range of information, education and opinion-forming about university life at EUR.

b. The primary target group for EM consists of students and staff from every part of EUR, including students and teaching and research staff from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. The target group shall also include: anyone who is involved or interested in academic life around the EUR.

c. EM shall reach its target group with publications on its website of the same name, via social media channels and internal publishing platforms like intranet. EM shall regularly send a newsletter (electronic) to all EUR students and staff.

d. The EM publication shall be freely accessible via the internet.

3. Editorial Board

A. General

a. The Editorial Board shall ensure that EM maintains its journalistic independence.

b. The Editorial Board shall advise the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team on EM policy.

c. The Editorial Board shall meet four times a year.

B. Appointment

a. The Editorial Board shall nominate new Board members via a careful and open recruitment procedure and in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief.

b. The Executive Board shall appoint new members.

c. The Editorial Board shall consist of a minimum of eight members, including a chair.

d. Members of the Editorial Board shall be students or staff of the university and as representative as possible of the institution as a whole. The Editorial Board shall also include at least one external journalistic member, to safeguard journalistic professionalism and independence.

e. The Director of Marketing & Communications shall be an advisory member of the Editorial Board and not have a vote when adopting binding decisions (to avoid potential conflicts of interest).

f. The Editorial Board shall elect a chair from among its members; preferably a professor from EUR.

g. Members shall have a seat on the Editorial Board in their personal capacity and be appointed for a two-year term with the possibility of reappointment for up to twice the original term.

h. Unless a member of the Editorial Board is not reappointed after his/her periodic retirement by rotation, board membership shall cease upon his/her death or voluntary retirement.

i. The Editor-in-Chief of EM shall attend meetings of the Editorial Board, shall not be a member but shall play an advisory role.

j. The EM secretariat shall be responsible for providing secretarial services to and reporting for the Editorial Board.

C. Duties

a. The Editorial Board shall act as a sounding board for the Editor-in-Chief of EM about the performance of journalistic duties.

b. The Editorial Board shall only review publications against the objectives set out in Article 2 and EM working methods in retrospect, after publication.

c. The Editor-in-Chief shall draw up a policy memorandum setting out intentions and plans and their financial basis for a period of three years; advice shall also have been provided by the Editorial Board.

d. The Editorial Board shall discuss the state of affairs at EM once a year, in the presence of a member (or a number of members) of the Executive Board.

e. In the event of a conflict between a member or members of the Editorial Team and the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Team members may approach the Editorial Board for advice.

f. The Editorial Board shall also be the point of contact for complaints and objections that the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team are unable to resolve. The Editorial Board shall handle complaints and objections in line with the procedure described in Article 6 of this statute.

4. Editorial Team

a. The Editorial Team shall consist of the Editor-in-Chief, Editors and Freelance Employees. The Editor-in-Chief shall lead the Editorial Team. Editors and Freelance Employees shall be accountable to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief shall conduct annual performance reviews with the Editors.

b. The Editor-in-Chief shall nominate new Editors, who are appointed by the Director of ABD. The Editors shall be Employees of EUR; EUR is the Employer. The Editor-in-Chief shall appoint Freelance Employees and be responsible for their publications.

c. EUR shall respect the free and independent professional practice of the Editorial Team – Editor-in-Chief, Editors and Freelance Employees – as journalists. As the Publisher, EUR shall refrain from anything that could influence the professional conduct of the Employee and Freelancer. As the Employer, EUR shall ensure that the Employee is not disadvantaged in his position as Employee by the performance of work for EM.

5. Editor-in-Chief

a. Implementation responsibility shall lie with the Editor-in-Chief, subject to the budget available and the objectives and long-term policy of EM.

b. The Editor-in-Chief shall have ultimate responsibility for the overall content of publications. The views expressed will not necessarily be those of the Editorial Team and/or Publisher.

c. The Editor-in-Chief may hire Freelancers to carry out journalistic duties that contribute to the objectives of EM.

d. The Editor-in-Chief shall be accountable to the Editorial Board for content.

e. Organisationally (human resources and budget), the Editor-in-Chief shall be accountable to the Director of ABD. The Editor-in-Chief shall be an Employee of the EUR; the EUR is the Employer. The Director of ABD shall conduct the annual performance review with the Editor-in-Chief.

f. The Editorial Team and the Editorial Board shall submit a nomination for the position of Editor-in-Chief to the Publisher. An Editor-in-Chief may only be dismissed with the prior written consent of the Editorial Board.

6. Complaint handling

a. Complaints about a publication or the conduct of a member of the Editorial Team shall initially be addressed by said member of the Editorial Team. If this does not lead to the outcome that both parties want, the Editor-in-Chief shall handle the complaint. If this does not result in the satisfactory handling of the complaint either, the Editor-in-Chief shall refer it to the Editorial Board.

b. In the event of a complaint about a publication involving one or more persons and the Editorial Team, the Editorial Board shall advise the Editor-in-Chief, who may only disregard it if he/she is able to provide reasons for doing so. The decision of the Editor-in-Chief shall be communicated to the parties in writing; the advice of the Editorial Board shall be sent with the decision.

c. Reference is made to the complaints procedure on the EM website for the detailed complaints procedure and possibilities of appeal.

7. Amendment of the editorial statute

The Editor-in-Chief shall propose amendments to the editorial statute and submit them to the Editorial Board for advice. The amended editorial statute shall then be submitted to the Board for ratification.

8. Final provision

Interpretation

In cases relating to the matters stipulated in these regulations for which these regulations make no provision or if these regulations allow for more than one interpretation, the Executive Board shall make a decision.

Administration of regulations

These regulations shall be administered by: Erasmus Magazine.

Translation

If these regulations are translated and a conflict emerges between the translation and the Dutch version, the Dutch version shall prevail.

Publication

Erasmus Magazine shall post these regulations on the Erasmus Magazine website.

Official title

These regulations shall be referred to as: Erasmus Magazine editorial statute.

Thus signed and ratified by the Executive Board,

27 May 2025