Integrity
At NOWCastSA, journalism with integrity is an essential value. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan local media organization, we strive to avoid partiality and bias, publishing news that informs and empowers people so they can engage with the community and make intelligent decisions for themselves.
We elevate the voices of those who are marginalized and often unheard to fulfill our mission to promote and facilitate an inclusive civic conversation.
This is journalism that strengthens democracy.
Our values
Adapted from The Elements of Journalism:.
Our first obligation is to the truth. Our first loyalty is to the community and the public interest.
We will:
- Adhere to a discipline of verification
- Maintain an independence from those we cover
- Serve as a watchdog and independent monitor of power
- Provide a forum for public criticism and compromise
- Strive to make the significant interesting and relevant
- Keep the news comprehensive and proportional
- Exercise personal ethics and responsibility
Code of Ethics
Excerpted from the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics:.
We will:
- Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.
- Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.
- Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.
- Consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted.
- Never plagiarize. Always attribute.
- Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information. Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.
- Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.
- Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
- Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes, and sources or subjects who are inexperienced or unable to give consent. Consider cultural differences in approach and treatment.
- Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know. Consider the implications of identifying criminal suspects before they face legal charges.
- Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.
- Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.
Editorial Independence
We subscribe to the standards of editorial independence outlined by the Institute for Nonprofit News and quoted here:
"Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization..
"We will maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions. We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support..
"Our organization also may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content..
"Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $1,000 or more. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization."
Transparency
All of our sponsors and donors are listed so that anyone may see where we get our support at any time, when we got them, and how much we received from whom.
For a list of NOWCastSA donors, underwriters and sponsors, click here.