Two stories about newsroom personnel issues written by a freelance reporter were removed from KUT.org last week.
The following statement addresses why this was done:
KUT is committed to robust, accurate and independent journalism - even when the station itself, is the subject of said reporting.
Since the recent stories involved personnel matters and allegations of inappropriate behavior, KUT newsroom leadership committed to have them reviewed by outside legal counsel before publication. That process did not happen.
Subsequently, KUT retained an independent lawyer to review the stories after they had already been published. Last week, the independent counsel and the university’s legal department recommended that KUT take down the stories.
The decision to remove these two stories from the website was not taken lightly. It also did not in any way reflect the freelance reporter’s or editor’s work.