Cherhell
Cherwell Editor Niall Stewart has resigned from the newspaper following alleged internal disagreements with staff. He handed in a letter of resignation last Friday morning (17 May) during a meeting with members of Oxford Student Publications Limited, the student-run company that publishes Cherwell.
In a statement issued after the meeting, Stewart confirmed that he had "come to the conclusion, albeit reluctantly and with regret, that [he] no longer wished to be involved with the newspaper." Cherwell's co-Editor, Andrew Sutton, will continue to edit the paper alone until the end of this term.
OSPL issued a statement in which it said "It is with regret that Oxford Student Publications Limited on Friday accepted the resignation of Niall Stewart as Editor of Cherwell. OSPL recognises and values the hard work and dedication shown by Niall over the past two years and wishes him well in the future."
Neither Stewart nor any members of OSPL would comment directly on the allegations made against him, and as such they remain confidential. However, it is claimed that they relate to events occurring two weeks ago on Wednesday 8 May in Cherwell's offices on St Aldates.
Stewart said in his statement that "The allegations made against me amount to nothing more than hearsay at best and tittle-tattle at worst. Not only are they spurious they are downright scurrilous." He later told the Oxford Student that he would not elaborate further: "It is not a good thing for me to engage with what people are saying, because an awful lot of lies are being spread."
"Legally I don't think that I can respond to [the allegations] because they have not been put to me in a formal way."
After the alleged disagreements, OSPL decided to allow Stewart a week's 'cooling-off period', although he claims that "From Wednesday afternoon [8 May], they were asking for my resignation."
Asked if he had expected to be sacked at last Friday's meeting, Stewart replied that "I'm resigning on principle, but had I not resigned... well... if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say yes, because by that stage it had become a witch-hunt and they were determined to do what they could... a lot of the damage by that stage was already done, but I attribute that to them and not to me."
He criticised the procedures of OSPL, saying that they indicated a lack of adequate infrastructure: "There was no attempt to act according to any written articles, nor do these articles exist". OSPL is run independently by a Council of Management chaired by former Cherwell Editor Meera Sabaratnam, who denied that formal procedures had been absent in dealings with Stewart: "We handled the matter in a manner that we thought was satisfactory. We did produce minutes at the meeting." She refused to comment further, saying the resignation was "a personal matter for Niall."
Stewart, however, added: "They may as well call themselves the Council of Mismanagement... The Council of Management adheres to rules that it makes up on the day, and it's very difficult to work within that kind of environment... somebody needs to sit down and have that company structured."
"When I consulted legal advice, they were absolutely adamant that natural justice had not been adhered to at all."
Although OSPL has company trustees in place, Stewart alleged that they "Don't really want to get involved - and who can blame them? They are never sent copies of the papers, they are not given updates, Annual General Meetings aren't called, and minutes aren't taken at any meetings."
Stewart cautiously implied that personal considerations were a factor in his resignation: "As far as I was concerned, these were all really good friends... this happens quite often in Cherwell... people [shouldn't] get their reputations sullied because someone decides to have a vendetta when they wake up in the morning. The crowd at the Crucifixion is a good analogy."
When asked to comment on the meaning of this statement, Andrew Sutton said: "I really don't know." He only said that "Niall has worked very, very hard for the paper and is leaving for personal reasons."
Three members of Cherwell's staff have since left the newspaper, two for reasons apparently unconnected to recent events. However, Catherine Crowe, former Deputy News Editor, handed in a letter of resignation on Tuesday this week in which she claimed to be "amazed and disappointed by the behaviour of many members of staff over the past fortnight... I am sad that I have had to make this decision, but I will only ever work with people whom I can respect and trust."
Sabaratnam said that she believed the remaining staff were working well together.
Stewart himself wished the newspaper well: "Don't get me wrong, I still firmly believe in Cherwell, but it's hard to support them at the moment when certain individuals are involved... I'm not getting into anything like slagging them off... I won't be drawn into it."
30th May 2002