Sawt Ashabab Code of Ethics
May 20, 2009 by RootSpaceOnline
- Honesty: A high level of integrity is necessary at all times. Misleading information is not allowed, and corrections are noted.
- Plagiarism: Claiming information or ideas taken from other people as your own is not acceptable. Sources are cited when necessary.
- Transparency: All articles are clear and open regarding their purpose and message, and writers are accountable for what they write. References and sourcing are applied when necessary.
- Language complexity: The language used appeals to the common person, and is a balance between simplicity/clarity and thoughtfulness/sophistication.
- Respect: All content is respectful, even when strongly critical, with no degrading or street language.
- Aesthetic quality: Pictures are high quality and of good resolution in order to portray the clearest message possible.
- Independence: This is an independent publication representing only the young people who are a part of this effort.
- Originality: The paper produces refreshing and unconventional content, designs, stories, and more in order to give young people, and all people, something that is new and different.
- Editing consistency: Information and name spellings are spelled correctly and consistently. All articles are proofread thoroughly more than once to insure a minimum errors.
- Free Speech: Freedom of speech is crucial to this effort. The web version will host an open blog so that anyone can post comments. (Only very offensive, violent, commercial, or inappropriate comments will be censored, and when legal red lines concerning religious and sectarian attacks have been crossed...)
- Balance: Coverage of politicians, political parties, and controversial issues is thoughtful and balanced, with coverage from a variety of viewpoints.
- Open Source: The YouthVoice team maintains an open source policy, which means that anything anyone is suggesting, working on or editing is open to be viewed by other members of the team. Copyrights for all pictures will be respected. We seek out and support open and shared licensing arrangements, including licensing our own content under a Creative Commons license.
- Collaboration: There is no hierarchy, and no one is above anyone else. We are open to collaborations with external groups, and we seek to include all participants in collaborative decision-making whenever possible.
(Developed by the Sawt Ashabab Editorial Board; May 25, 2009 draft.)
