Inskip Investments (Pty) Ltd t/a The Patriot on Sunday
PREAMBLE
Inskip Investments (Pty) Ltd –a 100% citizen owned venture between Batswana investors is committed to producing high quality publications – The Patriot on Sunday (weekly newspaper), Patriot Woman (monthly magazine) and News Beat (quarterly magazine). It has taken upon itself the obligation to achieve the highest editorial, advertising sales and management standards.
I EDITORIALLY
1) Reports shall be fair, balanced and accurate.
2) Diversity of opinion shall be valued and encouraged
3) The subject of a report – whether it is a person, a company, government or any other entity – will be given every opportunity to present his/her side of the story. Demonstrable effort will be spent to ensure that this goal is achieved.
4) Errors of fact will be speedily and prominently corrected. This recourse for readers
will be displayed in the following issue of each newspaper.
5) The privacy of individuals will be fully respected, except in instances of demonstrable public interest.
6) Photographs shall not be electronically or manually altered, except in a photo-montage or graphic illustration. If a photograph is so altered, this shall be made clear to readers.
7) Fact and opinion shall be clearly separated and identified.
8) The company is and shall continue to remain independent of any political, commercial or sectional obligations or commitments and will not represent the interests of anyone section of the population at the expense of another. In its reporting and employment practices it will strive to ensure that there is no discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, ethnic group, sexual orientation or any physical attribute.
9) Reports of a sensitive nature with regard to any of the above issues will be handled with great care to ensure that the rights of free speech and a free press do not diminish any other basic human rights, nor directly incite feelings of contempt, hatred or aggression in one section of the population against another.
10) Great care will be taken to ensure that reports on events, which might be deemed
by a reasonable person to be of a lewd or salacious nature, are sensitively handled and only used if they can be shown to be in the public interest. The same applies to reports, which might be deemed to encourage crime or violence. Full cognizance will be taken of the fact that newspapers are read by people of all ages, including children.
11) These principles are supported by specific operational guidelines to editorial staff
as amended from time to time.
II GUIDELINES
2.0 Following are the Guidelines to guide our reporters and journalists -:
- The Patriot on Sunday is an English language newspaper that at all times avoids verbosity. Connect the topic to the readership of the publication. If it is an international story, demonstrate its relevance or implications to national issues.
- Separate fact from opinion and back arguments with facts and be sure to confirm those facts before they are used. To this end, stories and articles must be researched first. It is better to miss a deadline than to apologize later or pay damages.
- Stories and articles must be informative and advance the readers’ understanding of an issue, whether they are economic, political, social etc. Story headlines must at all times reflect and be supported by the content of the story. Using misleading story headlines merely to sensationalize a story is unacceptable.
- To encourage diversity of opinion and accommodate as many readers’ reaction as possible to debates and issues raised in stories and articles letters to the Editor must be short (maximum of 500 words). Long letters will be edited for space while ensuring the essential points are not compromised.
2.5 Whilst humor and sarcasm are acceptable as literary embellishments, the company
will not publish letters, stories, and articles that are scurrilous, contain invective, innuendo, insults, or that promotes racial, ethnic, religious intolerance and dare generally in a bad taste.
2.6 Stories and reports that are of lewd or salacious nature can only be used if they are of interest to the public. Privacy of individuals should be protected, bearing in mind that freedom of the press and the right to information should not infringe on the rights of other people.
- Whilst the company upholds the principle of protecting the identity of sources, this principle must be used with caution. Request of anonymity by a source should be carefully evaluated by the Editor to ensure that sources do not use this privilege to peddle gossip, rumor and make unfounded allegations about subjects of a story or use the publication to settle scores.
- It is the responsibility and duty of the Editor to ensure that stories are well researched and supported by evidence. Errors in stories and articles will be speedily corrected and given the same prominence as the original story.
- The company recognizes and guarantees the editorial independence of its Editors, in particular in the selection and rejection of editorial content. Such independence however carries with it the responsibility and the duty to publish accurate, unbiased and well researched stories and articles.
If you should find that we are not living up to our Editorial Guidelines, please feel free to write to the Secretary, Inskip Editorial Advisory Committee, quoting the story, the date and the guideline you feel has been violated. The address is P. O. Box 81212 Gaborone, Botswana
