[spectre] Arts Council adds new gagging clause to NPO contracts

[heath bunting]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2014, marc garrett wrote:


irational was blacklisted by arts council
for displaying arts council logo on irational website
as stipulated by arts council funding requirements
after the daily mail newspaper published a hit piece against
arts council using irational.org as a weapon

the arts council scapegoated irational.org instead of supporting it
as is its mandate

i received a call from the chief exec of arts council at the time
swearing and threatening me that if we did not remove the logo from our 
our site immediately he would fuck us up

we waited a few days to discuss internally and then removed it
during which time, other government departments had further threatened 
irational.org

this new gagging clause it to protect individual careers in the arts 
council not even the arts council itself



> Hi all,
>
> Thought this important to share here....
>
> marc
>
> Arts Council adds new gagging clause to NPO contracts
>
> Arts organisations and those connected to them must be sure not to do 
> anything that could damage ACE’s reputation as a Government sponsored body, 
> else their grants could be at risk.
>
> Arts Council England (ACE) is inserting a new clause into its National 
> Portfolio Organisation (NPO) grant contracts for 2015-18 to deter any 
> individual involved with those organisations in any capacity from doing 
> anything that ACE considers might damage its reputation. Under the new draft 
> contract, from 2015 ACE will be able to “impose additional terms and 
> conditions” on an NPO if it judges that the organisation’s staff, trustees, 
> volunteers or anyone else “closely involved” with it may be acting so as to 
> have a “detrimental effect… on its [ACE’s] reputation as a distributor of 
> public money or as a Government sponsored body”. Under the 2012-15 NPO 
> contracts, ACE could withhold or demand repayment of all or part of an 
> organisation’s grant if it acted in a way that was likely to harm ACE’s 
> reputation, and this clause remains in the new contract, but the much broader 
> scope of the new clause has raised serious concerns across the sector.
>
> Potentially the new clause could not only prevent anyone connected with an 
> NPO from speaking publicly about ACE decisions or policies, but it could also 
> give the funding body the power to withdraw from arts activities that it 
> initially agrees to fund, but which it subsequently judges to be too 
> politically or socially sensitive. Simon Hughes MP, Minister of State for 
> Justice and Civil Liberties, told AP: “I think this clause is too extreme. I 
> understand that ACE want to discourage organisations from public criticism 
> but this wording is drafted also to control individuals and curb their 
> fundamental freedom of speech. I would urge funded organisations to think 
> carefully before signing up to this restriction of activity for their staff, 
> governing bodies and volunteers.”
>
> more…
> http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-council-adds-new-gagging-clause-npo-contracts 
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