Deontological Code AllTheContent.Com

1. Preamble

The members of AllTheContent.Com regard information as the forerunner of justice and foundation for democracy. The role of the journalist is to uphold these values and to provide fair and factual accounts of important events and issues. By providing his media whatever the channel, the journalist earnestly seeks to serve the public good in a detailed and honest manner. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility. The members of AllTheContent.Com share a deontological concern and they adopt this code to reflect journalistic principles and norms of the company.

2. Seek the truth and expose it

A journalist must be honest, fair and brave in the attempt to gather, report and interpret information.

In this respect a journalist must:

- Verify the exactness of his information and of his sources in order to avoid any mistake due to a lack of attention. The journalist should not tamper with facts.

- Strive to find the persons who are covered by his report so that they are given the chance to answer to any offensive charges.

- Identify his sources for the public to be able to judge the credibility

- Always question the motifs of his sources before he confers anonymity. Clarify the conditions upon which anonymity is granted in exchange of the promise to uphold it.

- Ensure that titles, news headlines, pictures, images, sound, graphics and excerpts from interviews are not misrepresented. Refrain from simplification and to draw events out of context.

- Maintain the authenticity of pictures and images and improve their technical quality. Identify the montages and illustrations.

- Avoid fabricating events. Clearly state that a news item derives from assumptions rather than fact.

- Refrain from collecting information under cover, except under circumstances that ordinary methods do not allow a regular release of information. When reporting is performed under cover, it must be clearly identified as such.

- Refrain from plagiarism.
- Narrate stories that imbibe human experience even when the subject is deemed unpopular.

- Determine one’s own cultural values and avoid imposing them upon the public.

- Refrain from stereotyping along the characteristics of race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, physical handicap, or social status.

- Patently promote the exchange of ideas, even when it does not seem appealing to the journalist.

- Offer speech to those who are deprived from it. Official and unofficial sources carry the same validity.

- Distinguish between advocacy and news. Analysis and comments must not misrepresent either the facts nor take them facts out of context.

- Distinguish between news and advertising and avoid amalgamating the two.

3. Minimize damages

Journalists must bear in mind the deontological code when they deal with sources, subjects and colleagues in a manner that upholds respect.

In this respect a journalist must:

- Demonstrate compassion towards persons that could be harmed by a report. Show sensitivity towards children, sources and inexperienced persons.

- Show sensitivity by requesting to conduct interviews or pictures of people that undergo tragic experiences.

- Admit that searching and presenting information for a report can inflict damage.

- Recognize that private individuals are entitled to more control upon personal information than public figures who seek for power, influence and attention. Only the public good can justify an intrusion into the private sphere of the individual.

- Maintain respectability and avoid immoral curiosity.

- Maintain cautiousness when identifying child perpetrators or victims of sexual crime.

4. Uphold independence of action

A journalist must consider public information as the interest of utmost importance

In this respect a journalist must:

- Avoid conflicts of interest whether real or perceived

- Refuse to join associations or activities that could undermine his personal integrity and credibility.

- Refuse gifts, favours, or special treatment and avoid secondary jobs, political appointments, and public roles of any sort even in local constituencies that can jeopardize personal integrity.

- Show cases where conflicts are inevitable

- Be cautious and brave when reminding people in power of their duties.

- Refuse to grant special favours to advertisers and people who represent special interests and withstand external pressure to influence the reporting.

- Be cautious when people offer information in exchange of favours or money. Avoid bidding for information at a high cost.

5. Be responsible

A journalist must demonstrate a sense of responsibility towards his audience and colleagues.

In this respect a journalist must:

- Clarify and explain reports and invite the public to express their views about the practices of the media.

- Encourage the public to express its criticism towards the media.

- Recognize mistakes and amend them

- Blow the whistle at the practices of journalists that do not comply with a deontological code.

- Respect the rules that others are expected to follow.

Source and history:

The first deontological code was published in 1926 by Sigma Delta Chi and it was borrowed from the American Society of Editors and Journalists. In 1973, Sigma Delta Chi wrote his own code that was revised in 1984 and in 1987. AllTheContent.com currently uses a deontological code that is inspired by the Deontological Code of the French Society of Professional Journalists.