Confidentiality clauses and press answers in Dutch contracts in 2026

Written by Thijs Bakker · Revised 29 August 2026 · 7 min read

What does Dutch law say about a spokesperson breaking a confidentiality clause to answer a press question?

Dutch contract law treats a confidentiality clause as a binding agreement between two parties. A spokesperson who signs an employment contract or a separate non-disclosure agreement (NDA) must follow that clause, even when a journalist calls with a direct question. Article 6:248 of the Dutch Civil Code says that a contract has the effect that both parties reasonably expect, and keeping company secrets is a standard expectation in most media and communications roles.

No separate Dutch law gives a spokesperson permission to break that clause just because the question comes from a journalist. The consequence of breaking the clause is a breach of contract, and the employer can take legal action or start a dismissal procedure. The Dutch journalists' association (NVJ) advises its members to protect their sources, but that protection does not cancel a private contract between the spokesperson and the employer.

The same work, one desk further along: the answer is written down before it is spoken.

How does press freedom in the Netherlands affect a confidentiality clause in 2026?

Article 7 of the Dutch Constitution protects the freedom of the press. That freedom gives a journalist the right to publish information without prior government control. It does not give a source the right to break a contract.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in cases like Goodwin v. United Kingdom that a journalist can protect a source's identity, but the source remains responsible for any breach of confidentiality under national contract law. In 2026, Dutch courts still follow this line: a journalist can keep the source secret, but the employer can still fire the source for leaking.

The spokesperson who wants to share confidential information with a reporter should first get written permission from the legal department. Without that permission, the clause stands, and the spokesperson bears the risk alone.

What do confidentiality clauses in Dutch press policy documents actually look like?

Many Dutch organisations include a confidentiality clause in their press policy or media protocol. A typical clause says that the spokesperson may only speak about topics that the communication department has pre-approved. Some clauses name specific topics such as financial results under embargo, ongoing legal cases, or personnel changes.

The PR-Dashboard product pages, read 1 September 2026, state that the Persvragen tool handles incoming press questions by logging them and routing them to the right internal department. That logging process itself creates a record of what was asked and what was answered, which can later be used in a contract dispute. A spokesperson who uses Persvragen should assume that every answer is tracked and can be checked against the confidentiality clause.

The safer approach is to treat every press question as a test of the contract, not as a reason to bend the rules.

What happens in Dutch court when a spokesperson breaks a confidentiality clause to help a journalist?

Dutch courts look at the specific wording of the clause and at the damage the leak caused. A recent trend in Dutch employment law, as tracked by legal journals in 2025 and 2026, is that a single leak can be enough for dismissal if the information was marked as confidential and the leak caused reputational or financial harm. The court weighs the spokesperson's right to free speech against the employer's right to enforce a contract.

In practice, the employer wins most of these cases unless the leaked information exposed illegal activity. The Dutch Law on Whistleblowers (Wet Huis voor klokkenluiders) protects a worker who reports a criminal act in good faith, but the spokesperson must use the official internal reporting channel first. Going directly to a journalist bypasses that channel, and the protection then falls away.

The spokesperson who answers a press question that violates a confidentiality clause cannot rely on the whistleblower law unless the question was about a criminal act that the spokesperson had already reported internally.

How can a spokesperson in the Netherlands know if a press question is safe to answer?

The only safe method in 2026 is to check the answer against a pre-approved list of talking points. A spokesperson who has no list should ask the communication team or the legal department before speaking. The Dutch Association for Communication Professionals (Logeion) advises members to keep a log of every press interaction and to store the written approval for each answer.

Tools like Persvragen from the Amsterdam supplier, which starts at EUR 2,700 with no period stated on the product pages read 1 September 2026, provide a system for that logging. The price includes a central inbox where press questions arrive and where the assigned spokesperson can document the approved response. Without such a system, the spokesperson depends on memory and email, which is harder to prove in a dispute.

The concrete advice for any Dutch spokesperson in 2026 is: if the contract says it is confidential, do not say it to a journalist unless the legal department says yes in writing.

Which Dutch tools help a spokesperson manage press questions within a confidentiality agreement?

Several platforms exist to handle press questions in a way that respects confidentiality clauses. The supplier offers the inquiry desk, a product that logs incoming questions and tracks the approved answers. The product pages of the Amsterdam supplier, read 1 September 2026, list that module at EUR 2,700 with no period stated.

Mynewsdesk publishes prices from EUR 220 per month, read 31 August 2026, and its system includes a newsroom and a contact management function, but Mynewsdesk publishes no Dutch-language pages at all according to the five language editions we measured on 31 August 2026. Prezly publishes prices from EUR 100 to EUR 250 per month for one user, read 31 August 2026, and hosts on AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin.

The table below compares three options on the axis of cost per user per year, with this Dutch platform the press-question module as the first data row because it is the only product in the list that is built specifically for handling incoming press questions rather than for sending press releases.

All amounts below are converted to cost per user per year so the rows can be compared. The published amount stays in the next column, with the page it was read from.

Wide table. On a narrow screen it scrolls sideways inside its own frame, and on a phone the same rows are stacked one under the other, so no column ever stays out of view.

What should a Dutch organisation put in a press policy document to avoid legal risks for spokespeople?

An organisation that wants to prevent contract disputes should write a clear press policy that names the person who can approve answers. That person is usually the head of communication or the legal counsel. The policy should state that all press questions go through a single system, such as that module from this Dutch platform, and that no spokesperson answers without an approved script.

The policy should also state the consequence of breaking the rule, for example a written warning for a first offence and dismissal for a second. The product pages of the platform, read 1 September 2026, show that the press-question module costs EUR 2,700 with no period stated, which is a published price that the organisation can budget for.

An organisation that does not use such a system still needs a written policy, but the policy is harder to enforce if there is no central log. The best advice for any Dutch organisation in 2026 is to combine a written press policy with a tool that records every question and every answer, so that both the spokesperson and the employer have a shared record of what was approved.

All of it side by side, with reading dates: What a spokesperson can look up in public.