Standards for media bloggers

Principles of fairness and transparency for bloggers practicing journalism

The Media Bloggers Association in November 2005 adopted the following standards for media bloggers who belong to the nonprofit group. The principles are meant to apply not to all bloggers but to those who practice journalism — and thus have relevance for citizen journalists.

Honesty, fairness and accuracy: State what you know and how you know it. Use links to supporting documents on the web wherever possible; credit sources and link to other bloggers. Distinguish fact from rumor and speculation. Be intellectually honest when expressing opinion. Don’t plagiarize or pass off others' work as your own. Act responsibly and with personal integrity.

Transparency: Clearly disclose conflicts of interest including personal relationships, financial considerations or anything else that might influence or appear to influence your independence and integrity. If you accept payments from advertisers or sponsors, clearly demarcate advertorial from editorial content.

Accountability and trust: Use your own name and offer a means for readers to communicate with you. Engage in conversations with readers on your blog, and trust them to form their own judgments and conclusions. Correct your mistakes promptly using strikethroughs or editor's notes.

Respect for the privacy of private citizens: Private individuals may not want photographs, videos or information about them made available to a global audience, even if they're in a public space. Use your judgment, and use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.

— JD Lasica

Creative Commons License
Notice: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License

up