Isaac Ethics Code

Fundamentals
Telling the truth
Be honest, accurate, truthful and fair. Do not distort or fabricate facts, imagery, sound or data.
Provide accurate context for all reporting.
Seek out diverse voices that can contribute important perspectives on the subject you’re writing.
Ensure that sources are reliable. To the maximum extent possible, make clear to your audience who and what your sources are, what motivations your sources may have and any conditions people have set for giving you information. When unsure of information, leave it out or make clear it has not been corroborated.
Correct errors quickly, completely and visibly. Make it easy for your audience to bring errors to your attention.
If a report includes criticism of people or organizations, give them the opportunity to respond.
Clearly distinguish fact from opinion in all content.
Conflicts of interest
Avoid any conflict of interest that undermines your ability to report fairly. Disclose to your audience any unavoidable conflicts or other situational factors that may validly affect their judgment of your credibility.
Do not allow people to make you dishonestly skew your reporting. Do not offer to skew your reporting under any circumstances.
Do not allow the interests of advertisers or others funding your work to affect the integrity of your journalism.
Community
Respect your audience and those you write about. Consider how your work and its permanence may affect the subjects of your reporting, your community and ­­ since the Internet knows no boundaries ­­ the larger world.
Professional Conduct
Don’t plagiarize or violate copyrights.
Keep promises to sources, readers and the community.
If you belong to a news organization, give all staff expectations, support and tools to maintain ethical standards.
Nature of Your Journalism
Our journalists should not express opinions at all and should work to ensure that stories are neutral, not reflecting bias toward any position. Exceptions are made for journalists whose jobs specifically involve expressing opinions, such as editorial writers, columnists, commentators and cartoonists.
We want our news coverage to be fact-based, without expression of opinions, but reporters are encouraged to provide commentary in related blog posts or columns, being transparent about their opinions.
Our reporters may express personal opinions in their own accounts on social networks.
We encourage our journalists to express opinions about journalism matters, advocating for freedom of information and joining the conversation within the profession about important issues.
Our journalists, salespeople and executives work to ensure that advertisers, sponsors and contributors have no influence over editorial content.
Our journalists should avoid political involvement such as running for or holding office, joining political parties, volunteering in campaigns, serving on community boards, donating to campaigns or displaying campaign materials on their property or persons.
If a family member’s political involvement would call into question the integrity of a journalist’s coverage, the journalist should avoid coverage of that issue or campaign. If avoiding such a family conflict is impossible, the family member’s involvement should be disclosed in related coverage.
Our journalists should avoid community involvement in areas that they cover. Journalists should tell their supervisors about their community involvement. When they have to cover an area where they have a personal involvement, we should consider assigning another journalist. If a conflict can’t be avoided, coverage should disclose the conflict.
Our journalists should disclose community and political involvements, particularly those involving topics they might cover, both in general statements we will publish on our website and in stories relating to their involvements.
We encourage involvement in the community, politics and the issues we cover, but we disclose these involvements in our coverage.
Despite our organization’s involvement in the issues we cover, we should provide factual coverage in a neutral voice. We should disclose our affiliation for transparency reasons, but the affiliation should not be evident from a promotional voice or content.
Bombs and Other Threats
We will consult with local officials to determine whether a bomb threat is credible before we publish a story, but we will reserve the right to publish regardless of what officials say.
Concealing Identity
We permit undercover reporting only when we feel a story is important enough to justify doing so, and we have exhausted all other reasonable methods.
Confidential Sources
We use confidential sources sparingly to provide important information that cannot be obtained through on-the-record sources. Reporters should disclose the identity of unnamed sources to at least one editor.
We will disclose to readers or viewers the reasons for granting confidentiality, such as fear for the source’s safety or job, when we use unnamed sources.
We publish information from confidential sources that we consider reliable, but do not publish the opinions of unnamed sources.
We do not attend “background briefings” where officials try to spoon-feed information to the media without speaking for the record.
We recognize that many sources cannot talk to us freely. We grant confidentiality if we think the source has a good reason. We will use information and quotes from unnamed sources we consider reliable.
We always assume that government snoops, law enforcement or hackers might access our regular communication channels when we grant confidentiality to a source. We should use technology such as encryption software or “burner” cell phones to protect confidentiality.
Children: Coverage, Images and Interviews
We avoid identifying -- by name or photo -- children who are connected with a crime as perpetrators, victims or witnesses.
We refrain from featuring photos of children who are connected with a crime as perpetrators, victims or witnesses.
We identify children who are charged with a crime only if the child is being tried in adult court.
We identify children who are charged with a crime only if that crime is a felony.
Our journalists seek permission from a parent to interview or photograph a child when it relates to all but simple matters (e.g. asking about a favorite video game).
We do not require parental permission to photograph or interview children in breaking news situations.
We consider granting confidentiality if we’re covering a story about a sensitive issue that could cause a child to be stereotyped, judged unfairly or put in harm’s way, even if the child doesn’t request it.
Generally refrain from photos unless breaking news story Kidnapping is an exception
Hostage Situations
We will cooperate with authorities’ recommendations in covering hostage situations.
We will take authorities’ recommendations into account but use our own judgment.
Sources: Reliability and Attribution
We may use sources with a conflict of interest in stories, but details that signal the conflict of interest should be included (e.g. a scientist who conducted a study about a drug's effectiveness when the study was funded by the manufacturer).
We use links, if available, for source attribution in online stories.
We consistently include clear attributions throughout a story, even if something has been established as fact.
Accuracy
We have a staff of fact-checkers to independently verify all information before publication
Our staff members must take responsibility for the accuracy of all information that we publish, using an accuracy checklist before publication.
Reporters should fact-check before publication but should not preview any of the actual text of a story with sources.
Balance and Fairness
We will refrain from presenting multiple points of view if one perspective on an issue has been credibly established as fact. In other words, we will avoid “false balance.”
In breaking news situations, we will attempt to gather comments from key sides of an issue; if comments are not immediately available, we will publish or air the story without them, make clear that we were unable to get some comment and update our story as needed.
Online Commenting
We do not permit anonymous comments at all.
We do not permit comments on any of our articles.
Quotations
We will clean up random utterances such as pauses, “um” or “you know” unless they materially alter the meaning.
Withholding Names
Unless we have a compelling reason to withhold a name, we always publish names of people involved in the stories we cover.
We do not publish names of sexual assault victims unless they agree to speak on the record.
In rare cases, such as when a sexual assault allegation has been proven to be false and malicious, we will identify a sexual assault accuser.
In breaking news stories, we do not publish the names of dead people until authorities have notified their families and released the names, unless compelling circumstances justify publication as soon as we have verified the names.
We should always be careful about identifying kidnap victims if the person may be in danger.
We withhold the names of mass killers to deny them the attention they appear to seek. Other than names, we cover other details of these crimes based on their newsworthiness.
In covering active police or military operations, we will withhold such details as location or tactics planned, until after the operation, to avoid endangering police, troops or civilians who could be affected.
We will consider potential harm to sources facing intolerance in their societies before naming them in stories.
Financial Interests
Our journalists may not own interests in companies they cover regularly.
Community Activities
Our journalists should avoid community involvement.
Gifts, Free Travel and Other Perks
Our journalists should accept no gifts from subjects or potential subjects of our coverage. If gifts sent to journalists cannot be returned, we should donate them to charity.
Our journalists may accept tickets or press passes to events we are covering or reviewing, but should not accept extra tickets for family or friends.
Our journalists should universally follow our policies on gifts even on international assignments when we’re told that refusing gifts can be viewed as offensive.
Our journalists may accept a small gift in cases where people are being kind and clearly not trying to influence us. Our gift policy does not require us to be rude; sometimes there’s a common-sense need to accept a small gift.
Personal Ethics Statements by Staff
Our journalists are encouraged to make personal ethics statements, which provide more information about themselves and their attitudes, even though they must follow our corporate values.
Our organization’s policy prevails if personal ethics codes and organizational policy conflict.
Plagiarism and Attribution
We believe a link to a digital source is sometimes sufficient attribution; we need not always name the source in the text if the information is routine.
When we are using someone else’s exact words, we should use quotation marks and attribution.
Attribution should be as specific as possible, including the name of the author and publication or organization of the source we are quoting.
Basic facts may be taken from other sources without varying the wording.
Political Activities by Staff
Our journalists should avoid political involvement such as running for or holding office, joining political parties, volunteering in campaigns, serving on community boards, donating to campaigns or displaying campaign materials on their property or persons.
Our journalists should avoid coverage of an issue or campaign if a family member’s political involvement would call into question the integrity of a journalist’s coverage. If avoiding such a family conflict is impossible, we will disclose the family member’s involvement in related coverage.
Our journalists should avoid political involvement such as running for or holding office, joining political parties, volunteering in campaigns, serving on community boards, donating to campaigns or displaying campaign materials on their property or persons.
Social Networks
Our journalists are free to express opinions on social media.
Our journalists should not retweet, reblog, share or otherwise pass along social media posts without providing context that indicates they are not endorsing the content in the shared link or post.
We encourage staff members to retweet, reblog, share and otherwise pass along things they find interesting on social media. We trust them to provide context where appropriate.
Staff members should note in their social media profiles that retweets or shares are not endorsements.
Staff members should always identify themselves in social media profiles, and, if they are using the profile for professional purposes, they should identify themselves as working for our organization.
Staff members communicating with and about people in dangerous situations, such as war, crime or disaster zones, should consider the safety and security of people depicted or addressed in the social media content.
Awards and Contests
We will accept awards only from journalistic organizations, with judges who are journalists.
We will assess the nature of the contest and make a decision consistent with our overall contest principles if we win a contest we did not enter.
Censorship
We will allow a censor to change our material if we’re convinced there’s a good reason to do so.
In military situations, we will agree to censorship and other restrictions that are reasonable for reasons of security and respect for troops.
Corrections
If a mistake is made in a social media post, we will delete the original post and publish a corrected version with an indication that the new post is a correction.
We will show all changes that have been made to online stories.
We will show all corrections in the place the incorrect material originally appeared (e.g., put corrections related to a story at the bottom of that same story).
Freelance Work by Employees
We permit freelancing by full-time employees, but they must receive explicit permission to do so from their direct manager before undertaking such work.
We prohibit full-time employees from doing freelance work for a competing media organization as defined by company managers or for a political organization, elected official, government agency, candidate for office, or a non-profit agency with a political agenda, such as an environmental group.
We allow part-time employees to perform freelance work, but they must notify their direct managers.
Handling and protection of freelancers and “fixers”
We will publicly credit the work of freelancers, fixers and translators unless doing so poses risk of harm, such as threatening a person’s safety.
We will pay reasonable fees to freelancers, fixers and translators for their services but not for contributing as sources on a story.
Removing Archived Work
We will never remove material from our archives.
We will note when the post was updated.
We will correct any errors we learn of in our archived content and note the corrections.
We will consider exceptions to our policy in extreme cases, such as abuse or danger to someone’s personal safety.
We will delete inaccurate social media posts but acknowledge the deletions in subsequent posts.
Reporting On Your Organization
We will avoid all potential conflicts of loyalty by refraining from covering the story when our organization has done something newsworthy. We will let others cover our organization. If an issue is particularly newsworthy, we will limit ourselves to publishing official company statements.
Robot journalism
We will identify for the reader the source of data for automatically produced stories and the people or company providing the story-writing automation.
We will provide substantial information on the automatic processes involved, including how the computer picks the lead and carries out the other “decision-making” that goes into producing a story.
We will not disclose that we “tune” our software for certain purposes because it’s standard practice in our area; our human writers have long written kindly about children’s sports, local amateur theater, etc.
Diversity
We will seek diverse pools of candidates for all jobs, but will always seek to hire the most qualified candidate.
We encourage staffers to seek diverse sources, both in specific stories and in routine beat coverage.
Hate Speech
We report on hate speech and actions but include original offensive expressions only when specifically necessary for audience understanding of the case.
We consider the perspectives of those offended by hateful expression when making publication decisions.
We consider the climate for free expression when making publication decisions.
We support local, national or international laws to combat hate speech.
Mental Health and Suicide
We will cover mental health and suicide as broad public health issues as consistently as we cover other health matters.
We will cover individual events of suicide as news stories if they involve prominent figures or public means.
We will use obituaries to cover individual events of suicide as appropriate.
We will not describe a suicide attempt as “successful” or “unsuccessful.”
We will not detail specific means of suicide in news stories or obituaries.
We will not use sensational headlines on stories about suicide.
We will not use graphic images on stories about suicide.
We will opt for everyday images of a person who dies by suicide (such as a school photo) instead of images of people grieving.
We will Include contact information for resources for people in mental health crises. (e.g. “The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the United States is available 24 hours a day at 800-273-8255.)
We will include the method used in a suicide when it is important for audience understanding but not specific details (e.g., noting that a victim shot himself but not covering the type of weapon).
Naming suspects
We will name criminal suspects if they are arrested.
We will not name juvenile suspects in criminal cases unless they are charged with serious violent crimes, such as armed robbery, aggravated sexual assault, attempted homicide or homicide.
If a criminal suspect is at large and believed to be dangerous, we will identify the suspect, including a photo or sketch.
Obscenities
We will use obscenities, vulgarities or slurs only in direct quotations and only if the quote is essential to the story.
We will replace obscenities, vulgarities and slurs with a descriptor (e.g. “an anti-gay slur”).
We will replace obscenities, vulgarities and slurs with something that implies the word rather than stating it directly (e.g. “f---”).
Online we will allow obscenities, vulgarities and slurs in non-quoted material if they fit with the voice of the writer and tone of the outlet.
Privacy
We view everything on social media and the Internet as fair game for journalists, and everyone knows it, even private individuals. We reserve the right to publish whatever we find online or from public sources.
We consider the standard for publishing material about private individuals who are thrust into the public eye as higher than that for public individuals.
We do not believe that everything celebrities and public officials say and do should be made public, even though they cede a great deal of privacy when they enter the public eye. We analyze cases on an individual basis, taking into account the news value of the public figure’s action.
We will voluntarily withhold information we have gathered when requested if we deem the individual's request to be valid, based on our news judgment and professional standards.
We reserve the right to publish material that we have voluntarily withheld if we determine that the material has valid public interest or if we feel that the requesting party has deceived us as to his or her motives.
We do not hold back from interviewing individuals in traumatic situations (i.e., accidents, terror incidents, etc.), because the public's right to know outweighs private individual's rights. Also, if a private individual in such situations talks to us, that’s the person’s decision.
We use discretion when it comes to interviewing and publishing material from trauma victims or bystanders because we understand that to do so may cause additional harm to individuals.
Race and Gender
We will seek out people in the groups we cover to gain perspective on our coverage and terminology.
We will use racial, ethnic, gender and sexuality identifiers when specifically germane to a story but not otherwise.
We will Identify transgender people by the gender they express publicly.
We will use plural references to avoid gender-specific pronouns when possible.
Sensational Material
We will run sensitive material that might be offensive to specific members of the audience after internal debate has demonstrated a clear public interest in and value from the publication.
We will facilitate responses from the public to publication of sensitive material.
We will consider the differing impact of sensitive material on differing segments of the population (e.g., effects on minors, vulnerable groups or victims of crime).
We will make publication decisions on material involving the local community differently from material involving distant communities.
We will refrain from running sensitive material specifically or solely for the revenue purposes, such as increased digital traffic.
We will run sensitive material with stories with notes of warning.
Audio
Audio cuts of newsmakers may be edited to remove insignificant stumbles, as long as there’s a disclosure that the audio was edited.
We will fully identify person-in-the-street-type speakers in audio cuts unless there is a compelling reason not to.
Our journalists may mix sound from different sources as long as it gives a true picture of what happened (even if it was not all recorded at the same time).
Data Journalism
We will never pay for data, as it may be tainted by financial motives.
In collaborative projects, we insist that all parties are clear on shared ethics, values and roles.
We will put all data in relevant context.
We will secure data to the best extent possible to prevent hacking.
We will apply our rules on paying for news to paying for data.
We will pay reasonable technical costs (copying, transmission, etc.) for providing data to us.
Interactives
We will organize and internally link our interactives in a way that users entering and navigating in different ways will be able to grasp the essential points of the story.
We will structure our interactives so there is only one way in, to give all users a consistent experience.
Links among the parts of an interactive will be retained over time, including when the story is archived.
We will allow a certain degree of poetic license in reconstructions or previews of events through infographics or animations; not every detail can be knowable for sure.
Photo and Video
When documenting private or traumatic moments, we will not seek permission to shoot, but will be sensitive to subjects’ situation.
We will use drones to capture images in public areas only.
We do not need to label a photo or video if it is clearly posed (e.g. an award-winner holding up a trophy).
We will refrain from intentionally becoming an active participant in a news story (e.g. taking part in a rescue operation or using our camera to influence a situation).
We will not manipulate images through Photoshop or other means.
We will obscure or pixellate images only when the intent is to protect the identify of someone in the image or to protect viewers from gory or graphic material.
We will refrain from doing re-enactments of news events.
We will refrain from using any generic photos or video to illustrate a specific story.
We will use generic photos only when viewers would not expect to see a photo specific to the story (e.g. using a photo of a plane from an airline’s fleet to illustrate the kind of plane that was involved in a crash.)
If using music in video stories, we will be cognizant of the emotional effect the music may have, and avoid using music if the story is intended to have a neutral voice.
We will verify photos or videos from social media before using them.
User-Generated Content
We consider UGC an extension of our own journalism. We don’t run such material unless we’re sure it’s authentic.
We do not allow UGC unless it is absolutely necessary
Virtual Reality Journalism
If a VR production is designed to spread a certain political or social point of view, this should be disclosed at the beginning of the piece.
Producers may stage-manage a VR production if that’s the only way to overcome technical obstacles.
Photos and video may be manipulated if needed to avoid disturbing scenes like dead children.
Accepting money
Our funder(s) will not be able to see our stories before publication.
Our funder(s) will have no say in topics to be covered or specific stories.
Our funder(s) will not be used as sources in stories they fund.
We will publicly disclose all funding sources.
Clickbait and Metrics
We may aggressively court audiences who would be interested in our content, but we will not try to deceive people in headlines, social media posts or marketing.
We will use metric considerations as one of a number of factors in determining what we cover and how we place stories.
News and Advertising
We do not allow advertisements for certain types of products.
We may accept payment from advertisers to provide stories on a general subject, but they will have no involvement in the content produced.
No ads that look like news stories