New Editorial Policy

asheville | media | feature Sunday December 30, 2007 02:19 by Asheville Indymedia

In the spirit of open publishing, the Asheville Indymedia collective has updated its editorial policy to add more transparency to editorial decisions. The new editorial policy is published below, and you can always look up the latest policy by clicking the "editorial policy" link to the left. The editorial policy spells out what sort of content we would like posted to our website, and when editors are empowered to hide or featurize user-submitted content. We have also added (though we're still working out the kinks) a "compost bin", which can be accessed by clicking on its link to the left. Articles and comments that the collective decide to hide don't get erased from the website entirely, they just get moved to the compost bin.

Asheville Indymedia Editorial Policy

The Asheville IMC newswire works on the principle of open publishing: anyone is allowed to post to the site. Articles go straight to the newswire and are not passed through an editorial board or approval process. Once articles and media are on the site, however, they may be hidden (according to the guidelines below) to maintain the newswire's efficacy as a media resource. The content of posts is never edited though sometimes formatting is corrected (html errors, for example). AIMC is committed to remaining as transparent as possible regarding its decision making. In this spirit, we are working to create a page to collect hidden posts so that visitors to the site can view articles that the editorial group has decided to hide.

AIMC encourages individuals to publish:

• well-researched, timely articles
• investigative reports exposing injustice
• coverage of Asheville regional issues
• stories on events affecting underrepresented groups
• media produced from within underrepresented groups
• stories on issues ignored by the mainstream media
• stories on people or projects working towards social and economic justice
• eyewitness accounts of progressive actions and demonstrations
• media analysis
• posts that disagree with the opinions held by the editors of this website

Editors are empowered to hide and featurize anything on the newswire according to the guidelines below and are encouraged to email the editorial list serve after doing so.

AIMC has consensed on hiding newswire posts that:

• are advertisements.
• the poster requests hidden.
• are duplicate posts.
• are "spam" posts deliberately designed to disrupt the newswire and its basic ability to function. These are posts that are deemed to be devoid of content or analysis and appear to be published with the sole purpose of disruption.
• are pornographic.
• contain oppressive remarks about gender, ethnicity, race, class, religion, sexuality, age and/or national origin.
• are clearly unoriginal.
• contain within them many links added to increase page ranking among search engines.
• contain invasive personal identifying info posted without consent (i.e. article posted with the sole purpose of publicizing a person's home address).
• advocate criminal activity indicating a specific time, place and/or manner.
• are full repostings of content from for-profit media.We want to encourage the creation of original content; as such, reposting of content from for-profit must be limited to excerpts with an original piece on why the post is of interest to readers. Direct reposting of articles from for-profit media will be hidden. Don't regurgitate the media, recreate it.
• the AIMC editors have consensed on hiding.

AIMC has consensed on holding a review of our editorial policy every six months. Our next scheduled review will take place on April 18, 2008. Discussion of the editorial policy is ongoing and not limited to scheduled reviews. The editorial list serve is emailed every time an article is hidden, unhidden, or featured. If a collective member disagrees with the hiding, unhiding, or featurizing of a post, he or she is encouraged to discuss the issue on the editorial list serve or at a face-to-face meeting (see events calendar for dates). If there is concern with a hidden post, the post will remain hidden until the editorial group comes to consensus. If there is concern with a feature, the post will remain unfeatured until the editorial group comes to consensus.

Rights to Material and Responsibility for Contents:

• The author is solely responsible for the content of their contribution. The hiding of articles does not indicate that unhidden articles are endorsed by AIMC.
• Original content is preferred and articles posted which consist solely of material copied directly from another website may be removed at AIMC's sole discretion (see above). Always be sure to reference the original url and declare that the posting is a repost.
• Though AIMC is entitled to fair use of copyrighted material, it may be removed in certain cases where the copyright holder challenges AIMC's republication.
• Authors should always strive to credit their sources when possible, especially in the case of direct quotes, unless the source has spoken on the condition of anonymity.

Only AIMC members/editors get to participate in decision-making. A member is defined as someone who has attended at least two face-to-face meetings. Membership is on a volunteer basis and is open to all (see get involved). Feedback, comments, and suggestions are always welcome: contact us.