[Imc-lasvegas] The consensed upon Editorial Policy!!

[Spencerkingman]

LVIMC Editorial Policy

-Contents:
1. Mission Statement
2. Open Publishing Newswire
3. What to Post
4. Center Column / Feature Articles
5. Hidden Articles
6. Deleting/Editing
7. Editorial Collective / LVIMC Editorial Process
8. Copyright of Features and Articles



1. Mission Statement

Indymedia is a grassroots network committed to using media production 
and distribution as tools for promoting social and economic justice. it 
is dedicated to addressing issues that profit-driven media often neglect 
and hopes to empower people to “become the media” by providing 
democratic access to available technologies and information.

The first Independent Media Center (IMC) was created in Nov. 1999 to 
cover the WTO protests in Seattle. IMC sites exists in over forty 
countries spanning six continents, which link the entire globe with 
local grassroots coverage of critical issues overlooked by the 
mainstream corporate media.

The Editorial Colective is the group of people that have taken on the 
task of editing the site. Indymedia is a peoples organization and 
therefore any editing is done only with the goal of providing the best 
possible service to our community.

Individuals who are members of the editorial collective will only uphold 
the policy agreed upon and all decisions will be open to review at any 
time by the community.

LV-IMC Editorial Collective remains committed to working under the 
LV-IMC Mission Statement and Principles of Unity which can be found 
here<link>.

2. Open Publishing Newswire

The Open Publishing Newswire, which refers to the right-hand column of 
the website, works on the principle of open publishing, an essential 
element of the Indymedia project that allows anyone to instantaneously 
self-publish their work on a globally accessible web site.

The Indymedia Open Publishing Newswire encourages people to become the 
media by posting their articles, analysis, videos, audio clips and 
artwork directly to the web site. You can publish to the Open Publishing 
Newswire by clicking the “publish” link on LV-IMC and filling out a 
simple form. Indymedia relies on the people who post to the Indymedia 
Open Publishing Newswire to present their information in a thorough, 
honest, accurate manner.

Anyone can post to the LV-IMC’s Open Publishing Newswire. News articles 
and media that are uploaded using the publish form will appear a few 
minutes later on the right-hand Open Publishing Newswire on the front 
page. In the case of heavy site traffic or large media uploads, the time 
may be longer.

Articles posted to the site go straight to the Open Publishing Newswire 
and are not passed through an editorial board or approval process. Once 
articles and media are on the site, they may be hidden according to the 
Editorial Policy. The content of posts is never edited, though sometimes 
formatting is corrected (for example, someone forgot to check html 
checkbox, or made html errors, etc.).

Please contact the editorial listserve to call attention to Open 
Publishing Newswire articles that should/could be featured or to comment 
about the editorial policy.

3. What to Post

In accordance with the LV-IMC’s overall mission, the on-line Open 
Publishing Newswire is designed to empower individuals to become 
independent and civic journalists by providing a direct, unmoderated 
forum for presenting media, including text articles, audio and video 
recordings, and photographs, the public via the Internet. Within that 
general framework, we specifically encourage individuals to publish:

- Researched, timely articles;
- Eyewitness accounts of progressive actions and demonstrations;
- Coverage of Las Vegas / Southwest regional issues;
- Media analysis;
- Investigative reports exposing injustice;
- Media on events affecting under-represented groups;
- Media produced from within under-represented groups;
- Media on people or projects working towards social and economic justice;
- Original, under-reported media of local, regional, national, or global 
importance.

4. Center Column / Features

The Center Column is the place for Feature articles. These can be either 
articles promoted from the Featurewire or articles written by an 
editorial team specifically for LV-IMC.

Articles promoted from the Featurewire can be promoted with either no 
changes, with corrections to spelling and grammar, or with added links 
and content (with the exclusive purpose of adding context for a 
worldwide audience).

Feature articles should be articles produced with content relevant to 
the LV-IMC readers. Features should be drawn primarily from independent 
media sources rather than the corporate mainstream press, and should be 
written with links to these sources if necessary. Features should be 
primarily news-reports, that is, reports on events which are taking 
place or will take place, rather than commentary. Features should be 
used as a mechanism for the distribution of information.

We expect all contributions to the LV-IMC Featurewire (Center Column) to 
meet one or more of the following guidelines, and will assess possible 
features according to them:

- Timely media on local issues, or media that has a local relevance
- Stories with picture, video or audio
- Well researched pieces
- Upcoming events
- Stories not yet reported in other media
- Media offering opportunities for immediate response/action

5. Hidden Articles

The LV-IMC Editorial Collective, in order to maintain the integrity of 
the Open Publishing Newswire and the media commons it creates for our 
community of participants, may “hide” posts to the Open Publishing 
Newswire when the content is in conflict with the guidelines that have 
been put in place (see below).

The reason why an article was “hidden” will be stated on the Editorial 
Collective E-Mail List, as well as in a comment on the hidden article 
itself.

Hidden posts can be challenged through the LV-IMC Group E-Mail list 
where it will be discussed, re-evaluated by the Editorial Collective, 
and then consensed upon. The Editorial Collective will respond to the 
request in a timely manner.

To maintain transparency in the LV-IMC’s editorial processes, all 
“hidden” articles can be viewed by clicking on View Hidden Posts<link> 
on the front page.

LV-IMC Editorial Collective volunteers reserve the right to hide posts that:

- Advocate criminal activity indicating a specific time, place and/or manner
- Are duplicate posts (the most recent remaining on the Open Publishing 
Newswire)
- Interfere with the technical functionality of the website
- Are empty posts (no content or gibberish)
- Are advertisements of for-profit products or services
- Promote racism, homophobia, sexism, or other discrimination
- Are obviously incorrect or misleading, including attempts to spread 
dis-information
- Contain threats and/or intimidation
- Flooding and spamming
- Posts the author has requested hidden
- Attempts to impersonate another individual
- Posts that incite violence against members of the community
- Posts which publish identifying information without the identified 
individual’s knowledge or consent.
- Posts which use language, imagery, or other forms of communication 
whose sole purpose is to promote racism, fascism, xenophobia, 
homophobia, sexism, ableism, ageism, or any other form of discrimination
- Persistent nuisance posts to the Open Publishing Newswire or comments 
sections (Spamming)
- Posts that are deemed to be devoid of content or analysis and appear 
to be published with the sole purpose of disruption
- Posts that are simply internal or personal matters which lead to 
further conflict
- Verbatim posts of corporate mainstream media without added content
- Unreadable formats (i.e. photos posted as text)
- Posts titled “test”

6. Deleting / Editing

Under no circumstance should any individual modify, edit, or delete 
posts due to content. The only cases under which there will be 
consideration of deletion is if the post in question threatens the 
continuation of the site.

7. The Editorial Collective / LV-IMC Editorial Process

The Editorial Collective is a group of volunteers responsible for 
overseeing the content of the LV-IMC Website. Members of the Editorial 
Collective regularly monitor the Newswire, keeping their eyes open for 
particularly significant, well-written, informative contributions to add 
to the front pages’s Center-Column Featurewire. It is also the 
responsibility of the Editorial Collective to remove any Open Publishing 
Newswire post that violates the basic principles described above.

Members of the Editorial Collective must be in regular contact via 
e-mail, and regularly visit and peruse the website’s Open Publishing 
Newswire. Without communication with others, and keeping one’s self up 
to date on current articles, fair editing may be difficult at best.

The LV-IMC editorial group will communicate over an e-mail list. This 
group is empowered to create and modify the editorial policy for LV-IMC.

Only Editorial Collective members are able to edit the site and only 
according to the Editorial Policy.

Anyone who is found by the community to be abusing this policy can have 
their rights to participate in this aspect of maintaining LV-IMC removed 
until a later time when their intent can be re-evaluated by the LV-IMC 
community.

We strive to make decisions in the most democratic, transparent and 
accountable manner. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our 
policy or our practice, or would like to volunteer with LV-IMC, please 
contact us at lvimc at yahoo.com.<link>
8. Copyright of Features and Articles

All posts made to the Open Publishing Newswire are effectively covered 
by the principles of Copyleft. <link: 
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html>

The author retains the moral right to be recognized as the author of the 
article in question, but the article is free for distribution for 
non-profit and educative purposes. Articles may be reproduced in full 
for any purpose and in any media provided the reproduction is under the 
same principles as laid out here, that is, the same representations of 
the Copyleft of the article must appear alongside the article.

Under no circumstances may articles or features from the LV-IMC site be 
reproduced in full in a fee-paying or for-profit medium. However, 
for-profit media may quote from articles or features in accordance with 
“fair use” copyright principles.

Specific queries about reproduction of an article or feature can be 
referred to the Editorial
Collective at imc-lasvegas-edit at lists.indymedia.org<link>.