THE CONTENT MAKERS EDITORIAL POLICY

POLICY

FOR ME, Margaret Simons:

In my work on this blog and elsewhere, I regard myself as bound by the Media Alliance Code of Ethics and Press Council principles. I also look at the ABC Editorial Policies for guidance, although many of them are not relevant to an operation like this one, or to freelance journalism.

In particular I will endeavour to report truthfully, correct errors of fact promptly and, within the guidelines laid out below, allow fair right of reply to both factual allegations and expressions of opinion.

Given that part of the purpose of this blog is to discuss journalistic practice I will make every attempt to be transparent about my ethical decisions and respond to readers who want to question me about them.

FOR COMMENTERS:

1. Vigorous but civil debate is encouraged.

2. Personal abuse directed at other commenters will be deleted or the comment edited as necessary.

3. Sexist, homophobic and racist comments will be either deleted or edited to remove the offensive material.

4. I will tolerate a higher level of abuse directed at me than I would tolerate against other commenters. Even here, though, there will be limits.

5. Likewise, there will be a higher level of tolerance for abuse directed against public figures, but there will be limits.

5. I will not allow this blog to be used for unreasonable breaches of personal privacy.

6. I do not intend to be sued for defamation over this blog. If I think a comment places me at risk of this, I will delete or edit as necessary.