Editorial Code & Corrections Policy

Introduction

This is a working document towards establishing a full editorial policy for The Fiduciary Gazette ("The Gazette"). It draws on the SABC's editorial policy as a starting template and on the South African Press Council's Code of Conduct, as analysed by the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) in "Decoding the Code" (sanef.org.za). A good editorial policy sets out clear principles for independence, accuracy, fairness, legality, accountability and protection of human dignity, reflects local legal and regulatory expectations, and defines how staff handle corrections, conflicts of interest, privacy, sources and hate speech.

A — Core elements

Central aspects of this policy are rooted in the following:

• Editorial independence, with decisions made by editors and journalists rather than advertisers, owners, political actors, or sponsors.
• Accuracy and verification, including a duty to check facts, avoid misleading emphasis, and correct errors promptly.
• Fairness and balance, with a commitment to hearing relevant viewpoints where appropriate.
• Ethical sourcing rules, including transparency, limits on covert reporting, and protection of confidential sources.
• Conflict-of-interest rules, including bans or disclosure requirements for gifts, favours, free travel, or other inducements.
• Avoiding sensationalism, including over-reporting in crime stories, stories of a purely sexual nature, gossip, salacious oversharing of irrelevant detail, maliciousness, mendacious reportage, and wilful distortion of facts.

B — Initial summary

The standard we aim for is clear, accurate, legally robust copy written in polished British English without unnecessary embellishment. We aim to avoid:

• factual inconsistencies
• potential legal or attribution issues
• awkward or ambiguous wording
• style guide deviations
• possible plagiarism risks when adapting material from other publications

C — Purpose of a free press

The media exist to serve society. Their freedom provides for independent scrutiny of the forces that shape society, and is essential to realising the promise of democracy. It enables citizens to make informed judgments on the issues of the day, a role whose centrality is recognised in the South African Constitution. Journalists should fully understand and appreciate just how much power they have — that everything they do in their professional lives influences people, that this influence can sometimes make or break a person, and that this places a huge responsibility on everybody concerned. (Source: SA Press Council Code of Conduct, as analysed in SANEF's "Decoding the Code".)

D — The Bill of Rights

Section 16 of the Bill of Rights sets out that:

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes: (a) freedom of the press and other media; (b) freedom to receive and impart information or ideas; (c) freedom of artistic creativity; and (d) academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.
• (2) The right in subsection (1) does not extend to: (a) propaganda for war; (b) incitement of imminent violence; or (c) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.

Media rights and duties

The media strive to hold these rights in trust for the country's citizens, and are subject to the same rights and duties as the individual. Everyone has the duty to defend and further these rights, in recognition of the struggles that created them: the media, the public and government, who all make up the democratic state. The media's work is guided at all times by the public interest, understood to describe information of legitimate interest or importance to citizens. As journalists we commit ourselves to the highest standards, to maintain credibility and keep the trust of the public — always striving for truth, avoiding unnecessary harm, reflecting a multiplicity of voices in coverage of events, showing special concern for children and other vulnerable groups, exhibiting sensitivity to the cultural customs of readers and the subjects of reportage, and acting independently.

E1 — Gathering and reporting of news

The media shall:

• 1.1 take care to report news truthfully, accurately and fairly;
• 1.2 present news in context and in a balanced manner, without any intentional or negligent departure from the facts whether by distortion, exaggeration or misrepresentation, material omissions, or summarisation;
• 1.3 present only what may reasonably be true as fact; opinions, allegations, rumours or suppositions shall be presented clearly as such;
• 1.4 obtain news legally, honestly and fairly, unless public interest dictates otherwise;
• 1.5 use personal information for journalistic purposes only;
• 1.6 identify themselves as such, unless public interest or their safety dictates otherwise;
• 1.7 verify the accuracy of doubtful information, if practicable; if not, this shall be stated;
• 1.8 seek, if practicable, the views of the subject of critical reportage in advance of publication, except when they might be prevented from reporting, or evidence destroyed, or sources intimidated — such a subject should be afforded reasonable time to respond; if unable to obtain comment, this shall be stated;
• 1.9 state where a report is based on limited information, and supplement it once new information becomes available;
• 1.10 make amends for presenting inaccurate information or comment by publishing promptly and with appropriate prominence a retraction, correction, explanation or an apology;
• 1.11 prominently indicate when an online article has been amended or an apology or retraction published and link such to that text, while the original article may remain;
• 1.12 not be obliged to remove any article which is not unlawfully defamatory; and
• 1.13 not plagiarise.

E2 — Independence and conflicts of interest

The media shall:

• 2.1 not allow commercial, political, personal or other non-professional considerations to influence reporting, and avoid conflicts of interest as well as practices that could lead readers to doubt the media's independence and professionalism;
• 2.2 not accept any benefit which may influence coverage;
• 2.3 indicate clearly when an outside organisation has contributed to the cost of newsgathering; and
• 2.4 keep editorial material clearly distinct from advertising and sponsored events.

E3 — Privacy, dignity and reputation

The media shall:

• 3.1 exercise care and consideration in matters involving the private lives of individuals — the right to privacy may be overridden by public interest;
• 3.2 afford special weight to South African cultural customs concerning the protection of privacy and dignity of people who are bereaved and their respect for those who have passed away, as well as concerning children, the aged and the physically and mentally disabled;
• 3.3 exercise care and consideration in matters involving dignity and reputation, which may be overridden only if it is in the public interest and if: (i) the facts reported are true or substantially true; or (ii) the reportage amounts to protected comment based on facts that are adequately referred to and that are either true or reasonably true; or (iii) the reportage amounts to a fair and accurate report of court, Parliamentary or quasi-judicial proceedings; or (iv) it was reasonable for the information to be communicated because it was prepared in accordance with acceptable principles of journalistic conduct; or (v) the article was, or formed part of, an accurate and impartial account of a dispute to which the complainant was a party; and
• 3.4 not identify rape survivors, survivors of sexual violence (which includes sexual intimidation and harassment), or disclose the HIV/AIDS status of people without their consent — and, in the case of children, without consent from their legal guardian or a similarly responsible adult as well as from the child (taking into consideration the evolving capacity of the child), where a public interest is evident and it is in the best interests of the child.

The World Health Organisation defines sexual violence as encompassing acts that range from verbal harassment to forced penetration, and an array of types of coercion, from social pressure and intimidation to physical force.

E4 — Protection of personal information

The media shall:

• 4.1 take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information under their control is protected from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access;
• 4.2 ensure that the personal information they gather is accurate, reasonably complete and up to date;
• 4.3 take steps to verify the accuracy of their information and, if necessary, amend it where a person requests a correction to be made to their personal information;
• 4.4 only disclose sufficient personal information to identify the person being reported on, as some information (such as addresses) may enable others to intrude on their privacy and safety; and
• 4.5 inform the affected person(s) and take reasonable steps to mitigate any prejudicial effects where it is reasonably suspected that an unauthorised person may have obtained access to personal information held by the media.

"Personal information" takes the definition in section 1 of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013: information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person (and, where applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person) — including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national/ethnic/social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, health, disability, religion, belief, culture, language and birth; education, medical, financial, criminal or employment history; identifying numbers, email/physical addresses, phone numbers, location and online identifiers; biometric information; personal opinions, views or preferences; private correspondence; another person's views about the individual; and the person's name where it appears with, or its disclosure would reveal, other personal information about them.

E5 — Discrimination and hate speech

The media shall:

• 5.1 avoid discriminatory or denigratory references to people's race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth or other status, and not refer to such status in a prejudicial or pejorative context — referring to it only where strictly relevant to the matter reported and in the public interest; and
• 5.2 balance the right and duty to report and comment on all matters of legitimate public interest against the obligation not to publish material that amounts to propaganda for war, incitement of imminent violence or hate speech — that is, advocacy of hatred based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion that constitutes incitement to cause harm.

E6 — Advocacy

The media may strongly advocate their own views on controversial topics, provided that they clearly distinguish between fact and opinion, and do not misrepresent, suppress or distort relevant facts.

E7 — Protected comment

The media shall:

• 7.1 be entitled to comment upon or criticise any actions or events of public interest; and
• 7.2 have their comment or criticism protected even if it is extreme, unjust, unbalanced, exaggerated and prejudiced, as long as it is without malice, is on a matter of public interest, has taken fair account of all material facts that are either true or reasonably true, and is presented in a manner that it appears clearly to be comment.

E8 — Children

In the spirit of section 28(2) of the Bill of Rights (“a child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child”), the media shall:

• 8.1 exercise exceptional care and consideration when reporting about children — a person under the age of 18. If there is any chance that coverage might cause harm of any kind to a child, they shall not be interviewed, photographed or identified without the consent of a legal guardian or a similarly responsible adult and the child (taking into consideration the evolving capacity of the child), and a public interest must be evident;
• 8.2 not publish child pornography, as defined in the Film and Publications Act; and
• 8.3 not identify children who have been victims of abuse or exploitation, or who have been charged with or convicted of a crime, without the consent of their legal guardians (or a similarly responsible adult) and the child (taking into consideration the evolving capacity of the child), a public interest being evident and it being in the best interests of the child.

E9 — Violence and graphic content

The media shall:

• 9.1 exercise due care and responsibility when presenting brutality, violence and suffering;
• 9.2 not sanction, promote or glamorise violence or unlawful conduct; and
• 9.3 avoid content which depicts violent crime, other violence or explicit sex, unless the public interest dictates otherwise — in which case a prominently displayed warning must indicate that the content is graphic and inappropriate for certain audiences such as children.

E10 — Headlines, captions and audiovisual content

Headlines, captions to pictures and posters shall not mislead the public and shall give a reasonable reflection of the contents of the report or picture in question; pictures and video/audio content shall not misrepresent or mislead, nor be manipulated to do so.

E11 — Confidential and anonymous sources

The media shall:

• 11.1 protect confidential sources of information — the protection of sources is a basic principle in a democratic and free society;
• 11.2 avoid the use of anonymous sources unless there is no other way to deal with a story, taking care to corroborate such information; and
• 11.3 not publish information that constitutes a breach of confidence, unless the public interest dictates otherwise.

E12 — Payment for information

The media shall avoid shady journalism in which informants are paid to induce them to give information, particularly when they are criminals — except where the material concerned ought to be published in the public interest and the payment is necessary for this to be done.

F — User-generated content and activities

This section applies where a complaint is brought in respect of comments and content posted by users on platforms The Gazette controls or on which it distributes its content. The media:

• 13.1 are not obliged to moderate all user-generated content (UGC) in advance;
• 13.2 shall have a UGC policy, consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, governing moderation and/or removal of UGC or user profiles posted;
• 13.3 may remove any UGC or user profile in accordance with their policy;
• 13.4 must make their policy publicly available, setting out clearly the authorisation process (if any) which would-be users must follow (including any terms, conditions and indemnity clauses), the content which is prohibited, and the manner in which the public may report prohibited content;
• 13.5 should, where practicable, place a notice on the platforms to discourage the posting of prohibited content;
• 13.6 should inform the public that UGC is posted directly by users and does not necessarily reflect the media's views;
• 13.7 shall encourage users to report content which may violate the policy; and
• 13.8 shall particularly carefully monitor online forums directed at children.

Prohibited content (clause 14) is material expressly disallowed in a UGC policy and by section E5 of this policy (hate speech, incitement and propaganda for war), which overrules anything to the contrary in a UGC policy. Defence (clause 15): it is a defence for the media to show they did not author or edit the content complained of. However, once a complainant sends written notice identifying the content, where it was posted, and why it is prohibited, the media must either remove it and notify the complainant, or decide not to remove it and notify the complainant — in which case the complainant may refer the matter to the Press Ombud, who treats it as if the UGC was posted by the media itself.

G — Attribution and plagiarism

The Gazette builds much of its news coverage by rewriting and précising reporting first published by other outlets, wire services, and official sources. This is legitimate practice under fair dealing principles for news reporting and commentary, but only when done properly:

• Every article must clearly name its original source, either inline (e.g. "Axios reported on Sunday...") or via a closing source line (e.g. "Source: IOL"), or both — the reader should never be left in doubt about where the underlying reporting came from.
• Where a story draws on more than one outlet, all contributing sources must be credited, not just the most prominent one.
• Rewriting means genuine rewriting: restructuring sentences, condensing, and using original phrasing — not lightly editing a source's sentence order or swapping a handful of words while keeping its structure and wording intact. A useful test: if a paragraph could be laid side-by-side with the original and shows matching sentence structure or phrasing beyond common factual terms, it needs to be rewritten further.
• Direct quotations from named individuals (officials, spokespeople, executives) may be reproduced verbatim, provided they are clearly marked as quotes and attributed to the person, not lifted uncredited as if newly obtained by The Gazette.
• Headlines and captions must be original to The Gazette, not copied from the source article.
• The Gazette does not represent rewritten wire or third-party reporting as original investigation or first-hand newsgathering.
• When in doubt about whether a rewrite goes far enough, err on the side of a fuller rewrite and a clearer source credit — both cost little and remove the risk entirely.