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

[marc garrett]

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