yarraReporter is an online local news bulletin that aims to provide alternative news stories that affect and are of intertest to people living in and around the housing estates in City of Yarra. To be able to give fair and credible stories for our audience the bulletin abides by editorial policies that encapsulate good journalistic practice: fairness, integrity, openness, responsibility and commitment to accuracy and truth.

The following editorial policies must be abided by the bulletin staff members and external contributors. These policies are underlining the bulletin contents; they are essential to gain our audiences’ trust. The policies apply to the three mediums that are used in this bulletin: text, audio and video.

Our policies are aligned with the code of ethics for journalists issued by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

• yarraReporter journalists report and present news and current affairs honestly by disclosing all the essential facts.
• We respect the right of our audience to be able to gain a variety of views. We do not suppress relevant, available facts or distort information.
• To achieve balanced reporting, we present all sides of an issue. Note; this may not always be achieved in a single article or program, but may be achieved across a number of articles within a reasonable time-frame.
• Editorial decisions are made on news merit. Fairness does not mean being unquestioning or that every side of an issue receives an equal amount of time.
• We commit to uphold the principle of journalistic freedom. Protection of a journalists’ source is an important part of the principle.
• We take great care in the presentation of brutality, violence, atrocities and personal grief.
• We respect a person’s legitimate right to privacy and do not intrude into private grief and distress, unless it is justified by overriding considerations of public interest.
• The public interest includes investigating and exposing any serious misconduct and seriously anti-social conduct, investigating and exposing hypocrisy, falsehoods or double standards of behavior by public figures or institutions. It also includes protecting public health and safety.
• Our journalists seek to act in the public interests and maintain good faith with the community we serve, not for the benefit of sectional interests.
• We do not allow advertising, commercial, political or personal considerations to influence editorial decisions.
• We do not take any editorial position in reporting and in producing programs.
• Direct quotations should not be changed to alter their context or meaning.
• yarraReporter will immediately publish a correction or clarification when there is a significant inaccuracy or distortion.
• Photographs should be a true representation of events. Photographs will be used only within context, captions are to be fair and accurate, and digitally enhanced images and illustrations will be clearly labeled.
• Editorial material should distinguish between that which is comment, that is which is verified fact and that which is speculation.
• All commentary and analysis should meet the same standards of factual accuracy as news reports.
• Only fair and honest means should be used to obtain material. Misrepresentation and the use of concealed equipment or surveillance devices will not be condoned.
• People’s privacy should be respected and intrusions on privacy should be published only if there is a public interest.
• Caution will be exercised about reporting and publishing identifying details, such as street names and numbers, which may enable others to intrude on the privacy or safety of people who have become the subject of media coverage.
• Photographs of victims or grieving people will not be published unless due consideration has been given to issues of sensitivity and privacy. Any restrictions placed on the use of photographs supplied by family or friends should be honoured.
• Unjustified references to the state of a victim’s body or body parts will not be published.
• yarraReporter will not publish individual cases of suicide, unless issues of public safety or the wider public interest justify it. Care should be taken when reporting methods of suicide and wherever possible public information on where to gain help must accompany such reports.
• Special care is to be taken when dealing with children under 16 years old. The editor must be informed when children have been photographed or interviewed without parental consent.
• yarraReporter does not condone chequebook journalism. It will disclose any instance when it has paid for information. Payment for information should be avoided, unless an editor believes there is a strong public interest and there is no alternative to payment. In cases where payment is deemed by the editor to be the public interest, the fact of payment should be published.
• yarraReporter does not condone its staff breaking the law in the course of promoting their duties. Nor is the online bulletin liable for any such action.

Conflict of Interest

• It is in the interest of yarraReporter and its staff that real and perceived conflicts of interests are to be eliminated. Therefore, staff should abide the following agreement.
• Staff should not use their position to obtain private benefit for themselves or others.
• Staff should not be influenced by family or other personal relations in fulfilling their editorial responsibilities.
• Staff should be alert to conflicts of interest that may arise and declare to the editor any real or perceived conflict of interest that arises or is foreseen.
• Staff involved in a story who believed they have an interest that could be seen to influence their views on the issue at hand should acknowledge that interest during preparation and at publication of the story.
• Staff have the right to join any community or political organization or activity but should be aware that such participation may create, or be seen to create a conflict of interest and reflect on the credibility of Yarrareporter and the staff member. However staff participation in protests and demonstrations or in decision making or fund raising capacities in organization that do or could generate news, should be declared where their involvement could be an issue.
• Yarrareporter will ensure that material generated as a condition of the placement of an advertisement or advertisements should be labeled as advisement or advertising feature. Staff should not be influenced commercial consideration in the preparation of material.

Plagiarism

• Staff must not reproduce other people’s material without attribution.
• The source of publicized material obtained from another organization should be acknowledged.
• Bylines should be carried only on material that is substantially the work of the bylined journalists.