Editorial Policy

News Of The Area – Editorial and Conduct Policy

Myall Coast Communications Pty Ltd, is an independent media company trading as News Of The Area,  and publishes of community newspapers; Myall Coast News Of The Area, Port Stephens News Of The Area, Coffs Coast News Of The Area, Nambucca Valley News Of The Area and Camden Haven News Of The Area.

In addition, the company publishes online news through its website www.newsofthearea.com.au and news through social media sites on Facebook and other.

News Of The Area’s Editorial Policy is developed using the Australian Press Council’s Statement of Principles along with our own Code of Practice.

News Of The Area will take reasonable steps to comply with the following Principles and Conduct:

1. Publishers Right

1.1 News Of The Area will publish content as we feel and at our discretion, through (including but not limited to); reporting news, special interest stories, opinions, letters to the editor, satire, cartoons, photos, blogs, tweets, polls and contributions.

1.2 The Publisher has the final say on what stories, news, letters, contributions and otherwise, are printed. We understand that the decisions we make may not be supported or agreeable at times, however we reserve the right to publish or not publish as we see fit.

1.3 Items may be excluded from publication for any reason by the Publisher (including but not limited to); defamatory or attacking content; relevance for the community; inappropriate; sensitive information; political agenda; commercial gain; space availability.

2. Accuracy and Clarity

2.1 Ensure facts are reported within all General News content and that information is accurate, not misleading, and is distinguishable from other material such as Opinion or Comment.

2.2 Reporters and Contributors should generally not rely on only one source. Care is to be taken not to recycle an error from one reference source to another.

3. Fairness and Balance

3.1   Content is to be published with reasonable fairness and balance. Writers’ expressions of opinion are to be invisible to the audience (impartial) and any opinion will not induce inaccurate factual material or omission of key facts.

3.2   Both/All sides of an issue, topic or similar will be reported, either within the same story or within a reasonable timeframe of an alternate edition.

4. Privacy and Avoidance of harm

4.1   News Of The Area will avoid intruding on a person’s reasonable expectations of privacy, unless we are reasonably confident in doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.

4.2   News Of The Area will avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety, unless we are reasonably confident in doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.

5. Integrity and Transparency

5.1   Avoid publishing material which has been gathered by deceptive or unfair means, unless we are reasonably confident doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.

5.2   Ensure that Conflicts of Interests are avoided or adequately disclosed, and that they do not influence published material.

6. Anonymity

6.1   The sources of information must be identified, wherever possible. When an person insists on anonymity, verification of the information offered must be sought prior to publishing.

6.2   Most requests of anonymity of comment or information will likely result in the comment or information not being published.

7. Payments, Gifts or Bribes

7.1   As a general principle no payment will be excepted for an editorial. This excludes Advertorials which are to be clearly labelled as “Special Feature”, “Advertorial”, “Feature”, “Advertisement” or similar clear labeling.

7.2   Staff, Reporters or Contributors are not to accept and monies, travel, gifts or any other form of reward for writing a story.

7.3   Bribes are to be rejected immediately and News Of The Area management or Editor notified.

7.4   Only the Editor can decide to accept an offer or item which may be but not limited to Reader Giveaways, Promotions or other.

8. Mistakes, Errors and Clarifications

8.1   If published material is deemed inaccurate or misleading then we may publish a Correction or Clarification notice within the next available Print edition. If material published is of an Online nature, then we may remedy the content or delete the content altogether.

8.2   Inaccurate or misleading content may be addressed by approval of publishing a Letter to the Editor.

8.3   No employee or contributor is allowed to commit News Of The Area to an admission of error, correction, or apology without reference to the Editor.

9. Complaints

9.1   First point of contact for mistakes, errors or clarifications should be the Reporter or Contributor who wrote the story.

9.2   If resolution is not satisfactory or even without consulting the Reporter or Contributor, then a formal letter should be directed to the Editor either by post or by email.

9.3   Refer to our Complaints Policy for more detail in making complains.

9.4   If a complaint is not rectified to a satisfactory level, then the final point of complaint may be the Australian Press Council (APC). The APC may be contacted even without consultation as outline in 8.1, 8.2, 8.3. It is preferred to give the Publisher a reasonably opportunity to handle the complaint.

 

Contact Information

Reporters and Contributors

  • All contact information for Reporters (emails and phone numbers) are Published on Page 2 or within the newspaper and on website www.newsofthearea.com.au

News Of The Area – Editor

Australian Press Council

 

 

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