Editorial Policy – Zurulink

Introduction

ZURULINK Africa Magazine has one goal: to be the source of the leading new ideas and information for people players in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry.

Our core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting, and distributing high-quality news, information, and entertainment. Companywide, our goal is to cover the news impartially and to treat readers, news sources, advertisers, and all parts of our society fairly and openly, and to be seen as doing so. The reputation of the publication rests upon that perception, and so do the professional reputations of its staff members. Thus, Impact Strategic Communications Limited – the publisher of Zurulink Africa Magazine and the members of its newsrooms and writers share an interest in avoiding conflicts of interest or any appearance of conflict.

The character and philosophy of ZURULINK Africa Magazine shall be shaped by the editorial guidelines and objectives outlined below.

The Scope

These guidelines generally apply to all members of the editorial department whose work directly affects the content of the Magazine and its reputation. They include writers, reporters, columnists, editors, editorial writers, photographers, picture editors, art directors, artists, designers, graphics editors and researchers.

POLICY GUIDELINES

Core Values

The magazine must remain independent of vested interests or external influences. The publication shall be committed to publishing comprehensive and accurate information and fair commentaries. The objective should be to ascertain and verify the truth of what is published insofar as this can be established.
Veracity and accuracy in reporting are an integral part of our editorial policy and the Editor will only publish that which they believe to be true, fair, and accurate. Every effort will be made to ascertain the factual accuracy of articles through, for instance, cross-checking of facts and the mandatory use of tape-recorders or other recording devices. All recordings of interviews should be handed over to the ZURULINK Africa Magazine
All editorial content will be selected for its inherent news value and not to appease, augment or respond to political, commercial or any other interests. In this respect, all advertisements and advertising-related material will be signposted as such. Editors and journalists must test the value of each story, report, or article by interrogating the extent to which it satisfies the “so what?” element.
The Magazine will differentiate clearly between views and opinion on the one hand and news and reportage on the other. The former, whether they are the opinions of external/guest contributors or of the Publisher, will be clearly identified and designated in the Magazine columns/sections. In the case of contributors, a brief profile setting out their qualifications and, where appropriate, political stance and affiliation will be put in the Contributing Writers section at the discretion of the Editor. In general, though, the trend must be towards a wise mix and balance of reporting, analysis, and interpretative journalism to help readers better understand the issues that are part of their everyday lives.
The Magazine stands for racial, ethnic, religious and communal harmony and political/party tolerance as well as other forms of pluralism: They aim to help readers of all races, faiths and nations to see events in perspective, and to understand their interrelationships.
The Magazine supports the principles of democracy as they are most widely understood, that is, good governance, transparency and accountability, regular, free, and fair elections as well as social equity; supports and promotes the protection and promotion of human rights and civil liberties; supports and promotes public debate on matters of national importance with a view to bringing about behavioural and policy change for the common good.
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the Magazine supports and promotes the protection and conservation of the environment whilst promoting sustainable development with the help of our CSR department.
The Magazine will promote the national efforts of the people of Africa to develop and harmonise their institutions for the common good and will encourage regional integration where this is practicable and demonstrably to the advantage of the peoples of those countries involved. It should bring, where possible, first hand and independent news coverage and views and not exclusively a repetition of articles published by others and agencies. However, in certain cases, an agreement with a publication in another country could lead to a publication (for the second time) of a story from that magazine. A disclaimer is thus included at the end of the story indicating where the story was first published.
The Magazine’s Vision will not be confined to Kenya but Africa and will be driven by the objective of establishing itself as a premier publication in travel, tourism, aviation, and hospitality.

Role of Editor

Editor/s shall not shy away from objective and generally constructive criticism of any group or person, action, or policy where such criticism is considered in conscience to be well founded, based on a full and accurate assessment of the factual realities, and offered in the interests of the public at large.

Professional Obligations

The Magazine’s news and information outlets will be authoritative without being didactic; will be intelligent and broad in coverage in the following ways:

They will encourage the intelligent expression of African thought and perspectives by way of regular contributions from outsiders able to offer unique professional expertise and reasoned diverse opinions on topical issues about the continent.
They will avoid generalisations where the specific is more accurately appropriate. By their coverage and style, they will maintain a national and international flavour.
A constant search is required for higher literary, fluency and grammatical standards among editorial staff, pre-eminently in the pursuit of legibility, comprehension, accuracy, and balance. Specific consideration is given in this area to the question of phrasing of headlines and captions.
Constant care will be taken to ensure that headlines accurately reflect the theme and tone of the article they are based on.

Format and Design

The typographical layout of the Magazine must change from time to time, but the fundamental principle is to present editorial content in an attractive but disciplined, sober, consistent, and non-sensationalist format.

Editorial Objectives

This section deals with specific objectives, which place obligations on each member of the editorial staff. They should be treated as mandatory expectations in the individual’s day-to-day editorial work. Their application will be reviewed regularly with the departmental Head.

It is our objective to make the Magazine comparable in authority, balance, credibility, and presentation with leading media platforms in other parts of the world. In this regard, ZURULINK Africa Magazine will provide the expertise necessary for a general and marked uplift in professional skills and standards in the tourism, travel, aviation, and hospitality industry.
The Magazine will avoid such “non-news” content as empty statements of a general nature, occasions, or releases where publicity for individuals, groups or organisations is the sole dominant objective.
The Magazine must reflect a bias against routine assignments and political or charitable functions that are known to have little or no news value.
All news stories will not be accepted at their face value. Background information, names, ages, titles, contrary points of view (if appropriate) will be thoroughly ascertained before a story is submitted for publication. Where further depth is required – either explanation or history – this will always be provided so that news coverage is never untruthful, wilfully misleading, superficial, unbalanced, or incomplete.
Specialised/technical language and expressions (e.g. such as in medicine, economics, religion, court cases) must be accurately and carefully interpreted into simple English.
Normally, lists of names at official functions should be eliminated from the text of stories. Stories must concentrate on events themselves, not on the names of officials associated with them. A magistrate’s name and title, for example, should not be published unless his/her actions, remarks or other involvement are pertinent to the case or the story.
Pedantic (unimaginative) facts, whose publication is unnecessary should be avoided.
Indisputable and straightforward facts should not be attributed to spokespersons. Indirect speech will not be attributed, sentence-by-sentence, to the speaker. One attribution should cover several paragraphs, provided the correct tense is used.
Outdated clichés will not be used. Equally, slang language/words such as lash, fire, bash, roast, and rap for criticise will not be used in text except in direct speech, and not at all in headlines.
Magazine editorials will base their conclusions on demonstrable and comprehensive research. They will be balanced, constructive and informative and will represent the authoritative voice of the Magazine and not only that of the writers. Where an editorial is based on an issue in any of the East African countries, efforts must be made to verify the facts with the appropriate officials in the respective countries and not unnecessarily or gratuitously contribute to inter-country tensions.
Features, except those clearly identified as those of contributors whose views have been solicited by the Magazine based on their specialist value, will be informative, solidly researched, balanced, simply written and will present facts. “Essay-type” features are forbidden. Features writers and other writers will avoid the assumption that they are participants rather than observers. All features must earn the space they occupy. Acceptable articles in that category will include topical, human-interest features of special appeal to the readership and those with relevance to Africa.
Unsolicited features submitted for publication by commercial and other vested interests and pressure groups will, generally, not be accepted. If, exceptionally, any such feature is judged to have news value and be worthy of publication, it will be edited to correspond with the style of the publication or other outlet and its source will be clearly identified.
The Editor must make every effort to eschew material that is vulgar or tasteless.
Pictures/graphics, including cartoons that make the Magazine lifeless and dull will be automatically rejected unless they are of major significance. Pictures/graphics will be lively, crisp, and high quality.
PR material both written, and pictorial must be used judiciously. This should not, however, prevent the use of stills in picture reviews, company results and other Press releases where such material concerns topics of genuine public interest. All stories based on PR material so used will, however, be re-written in the news style of the Magazine, any self indulgence removed, and its inclusions judged solely on its news value. Special care will be taken, however, not to alter or misrepresent the essential factual content of the PR communication.
Columnists and commentators (on staff or outside) should always be identified not just by name, but also by affiliation.
Editorial staff should regularly refer to these guidelines to assist them in structuring their writing, production, and presentation to the required standard. Performance will be judged on their ability to interpret and implement these guidelines.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES: CODE OF CONDUCT AND ETHICS FOR ZURULINK AFRICA MAGAZINE STAFF/ JOURNALISTS

The following code is intended as a guide for ALL ZURULINK Africa Magazine editorial staff and is based on the premise that all journalists have a duty to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards. It is founded on the individual’s fundamental right to be informed and to freely receive and disseminate information.

Accuracy And Fairness

The fundamental objective of a journalist is to report fairly, accurately and without bias on matters of public interest. All sides of a story should be reported. It is important to obtain comments from anyone mentioned in an unfavourable context.
Whenever it is recognised that an inaccurate, misleading, or distorted report has been published, it should be corrected promptly. Corrections should report the correct information and not restate the error except when clarity demands. Ideally, corrections should be made in a regular format and similar position as promptly as possible after the error has been detected.
Corrections do not normally require an apology and apologies should normally be made based on legal advice.

Right to Reply

A fair opportunity to reply to inaccuracies should be given to individuals or organisations when reasonably called for. If the request to correct inaccuracies in a story is in the form of a letter, the editor has the discretion to publish it in full or its abridged and edited version, particularly when it is too long. However, the editor should not omit or refuse to publish important portions of the reply/rejoinder, which effectively deal with the accuracy of the offending story. If the editor doubts the truth or factual accuracy of the reply/rejoinder, even then, it is his/her duty to publish it with liberty to append an editorial comment doubting its veracity. Note that this should be done only when this doubt is reasonably founded on impeccable evidence in the editor’s possession. The editor should not, in a cavalier fashion, without due application of mind, append such a note as: “We stand by our story.”

Letters To the Editor

The editor is not obliged to publish all the letters received regarding a controversial He/she may select and publish only some of them either in their entirety or the gist thereof. However, in exercising this right, he/she must make an honest attempt to ensure that what is published is not one-sided but presents a fair balance between the pros and cons of the principal issue.
The editor has the discretion to decide at which point to end the debate in the event of a rejoinder upon rejoinder being sent by two or more parties to a controversial subject. It is the Magazine’s aim not to suppress the publication of letters to the editor merely on account of the editors’ disagreement with the underlying messages or arguments.

Unnamed Sources

Unnamed sources should not be used unless the pursuit of truth will best be served by not naming the source or in the event the source requests his/her anonymity to be respected. When material is used in a report from sources other than the reporter’s, these sources should be indicated in the story. If unnamed sources are quoted, the article should indicate the reason why the source did not want to be disclosed.

Confidentiality

In circumstances where complete confidentiality is assumed as a condition of obtaining the story, that situation needs to be respected and considered according to the existing legal framework. In general, journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.

Misrepresentation

ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists should generally identify themselves and not obtain or seek to obtain information or pictures through misrepresentation or subterfuge.
Unless in the public interest, documents or photographs should be used only with the express consent of the owner.
Subterfuge can be justified only in the public interest and only when material cannot be obtained by any other means. The public interest includes; detecting or exposing crime or serious misdemeanour or anti-social conduct; protecting public health or safety; preventing the public being misled by some statement or action of an individual.

Obscenity, Taste and Tone in Reporting

ZURULINK Africa Magazine should not publish anything that is obscene, vulgar, or offensive to public good taste. A story, photograph or drawing/cartoon of questionable taste should have significant news value to justify its usage. Generally, what is in good taste is to be determined by the prevailing social norms. But the following basic tastes should be applied:

Is the depiction of a particular scene and the language used likely to be regarded as filthy, revolting, repugnant, dirty, or lewd?
With regards to pictures, the following should offer guidelines:

Is it vulgar and indecent?
Is it mere pornography?
Is its publication meant merely to make money by titillating the sexual feelings of adolescents and adults among whom it is intended to circulate? In other words, does it constitute an “unwholesome exploitation” of sex for the sake of money?
Is it invasive of anyone’s privacy? If this is the case, a further question should then be asked as to whether the use of any such photo is nonetheless justified by a clear and indisputable public interest in doing so.

In the same vein, publication of photographs showing dead or mutilated bodies, bloody incidents and abhorrent scenes should be avoided unless the publication of such photographs will serve the larger public interest.

Paying for news and articles

When money is paid for information, serious questions can be raised about the credibility of that information and the motives of the buyer and seller. Therefore, in principle, our journalists should avoid paying for information.

Plagiarism

Using someone else’s work without attribution – whether deliberately or thoughtlessly – is a serious ethical breach. However, borrowing ideas from elsewhere is considered fair journalistic practice so long as the source is acknowledged. Words directly quoted from sources other than the writer’s own reporting should be attributed. In general, when other work is used as the source of ideas or stylistic inspiration, the result must be clearly different and distinguishable as the original work of the reporter.

Discrimination

In general, the ZURULINK Africa Magazine avoids prejudicial or pejorative references to a person’s race, tribe, clan, religion, sex, or sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness, handicap, or political orientation. These details should be eschewed unless they are germane (being appropriate) to the story.
Everyone should be accorded equal treatment as news subjects or sources and ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists should not deliberately deny the right of any group to exposure in the ZURULINK Africa Generally, a reference to one’s nationality (e.g. Ugandan, Kenyan, or Tanzanian) is less contentious than a reference to race (e.g. white/black) or tribe (Kikuyu/Kalenjin/Luo).

Recording Interviews and Telephone Conversations

Except in rare and justifiable cases, ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists should not tape anyone during an interview without that person’s knowledge and agreement. An exception may be made only if the recording is necessary to protect the journalist in a legal action or for some other compelling reason such as coverage of public meetings and if other approaches don’t work.
On the other hand, the use of recorders for interviews, speeches or at press conferences with the knowledge of the subject is encouraged to protect against error and to protect against possible charges of misquotation.

Privacy

The public’s right to know often needs to be weighed vis-à-vis the privacy rights of people in the news. Intrusion and inquiries into an individual’s private life without the person’s consent are not generally acceptable unless public interest is indisputably involved. Public interest must itself be legitimate and not merely based upon prurient or morbid curiosity.
Things concerning a person’s home, family, religion, tribe, health, sexuality or sexual orientation, personal life and private affairs are covered by the concept of privacy except where these impinge or can reasonably be presumed to impinge upon the public well being.

Intrusion Into Grief or Shock

In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries should be carried out and approaches made with sympathy, empathy, and discretion.

Financial Journalism

Even where the law does not prohibit it, ZURULINK Africa Magazine staff should not use for their own profit financial information they receive in advance of its general publication, nor should they pass that information to others. They should not write about shares or securities in whose performance they know that they, their close families, or associates have a significant financial interest, without disclosing the interest to the editor. They should not buy or sell, either directly or through nominees or agents, shares, or securities about which they intend to write soon. Utmost care should be exercised by ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists in giving any interpretation to financial information.

Conflict Of Interest and Unfair Advantage

ZURULINK Africa Magazine practices a policy of zero-tolerance of corrupt practices. In this regard, its journalists and editors must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know the truth. Gifts, bribes, brown envelopes, favours, free travel, free meals or drinks, special treatment or privileges can compromise the integrity of journalists, editors, and their employers.
ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists and editors should conduct themselves in a manner that protects them from conflicts of interest, real or apparent. It is important not only to avoid conflicts of interest but also the appearances of such conflicts. In this connection, all situations capable of creating undue familiarity will be avoided or handled cautiously. In addition, our journalists and editors must not allow their political or religious affiliations; views or morals and ethics influence their editorial judgment.

Innocent Relatives and Friends

The ZURULINK Africa Magazine should generally avoid identifying relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of crime, or otherwise unfavourably featured in news stories, unless the reference to them is necessary for the full, fair, and accurate reporting of the crime, legal or other proceedings.

Acts Of Violence

ZURULINK Africa Magazine should avoid presenting acts of violence, armed robberies, banditry, and terrorist activities in a manner that glorifies such anti-social conduct. The Magazine should not allow columns to be used for writings which tend to encourage or glorify social evils, warlike activities, ethnic, racial, or religious hostilities.

Ethnic Disputes/Clashes/Interstate Conflicts

News, views, or comments relating to ethnic or religious disputes/clashes/interstate conflicts should be published after proper verification of facts and presented with due caution, balance and restraint in a manner which is conducive to the creation of an atmosphere congenial to national harmony, reconciliation, amity, and peace.
Sensational, provocative, and alarming headlines are to be avoided. News reports or commentaries should not be written in a manner likely to inflame the passions, aggravate the tension or accentuate the strained relations between the parties concerned. Equally so, content with the potential to exacerbate communal animosity or national conflict should be avoided.

Judicial Acts

ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists and editors should, as a matter of caution, avoid unfair and unwarranted criticism which by innuendo attributes an oblique or extraneous motive to a judge or any judicial officer for performing an act in the course of his/her official duties even if such criticism does not in law amount to contempt of court.

Editor’s Responsibility

The editor shall assume responsibility for all matter, including advertisements, published in ZURULINK Africa Magazine.

Comment, Conjecture and Fact

ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists should distinguish clearly in their reports between comments, conjecture, and facts. More importantly, they should write in such a manner that the reader is able to distinguish between comments, conjecture, and facts.

Protection Of Children

Children should not be identified in cases concerning sexual offences, whether as victims, witnesses, or defendants. Except in matters of public interest, like in cases of child abuse or abandonment, journalists should not normally interview or photograph children on subjects involving their personal welfare in the absence of or without the consent of a parent or other adult who is responsible for the children. Children should not be approached or photographed while at school without the permission of the school authorities.

Victims Of Sex Crimes

ZURULINK Africa Magazine should not identify victims of sexual assault or publish material likely to contribute to such identification. Such exposure does not serve any legitimate journalistic or public interest and may bring social embarrassment to their relations, family, friends, community, or religious order to which they belong. Editors have a moral obligation to ensure they leave no margin whatsoever that could lead to the identification of such victims.

Use Of Pictures and Names

As a rule, ZURULINK Africa Magazine should apply caution in the use of pictures and names and avoid publication or distribution where there is a possibility of harming the person(s) concerned unless there is a substantial public interest served by such use. There should be no identification of a person or persons in a photograph unless their identity is certain.

Pre-Publication Verification of Reports

Whenever editors receive a report, photograph, or video containing defamatory or derogatory imputations or comments touching on the public conduct or character of an individual or organisation, they should, before using the information, check, with due care and attention, its factual accuracy with the person or organisation concerned to elicit comments or reaction and publish the same. If responsibility is disclaimed, this determination shall be explicitly stated beforehand.

The Magazine will treat advertisers as fairly and openly as we treat our audiences and news sources. The relationship between the company and advertisers rests on the understanding that news and advertising are separate – that those who deal with either one have distinct obligations and interests, and each group respects the other’s professional responsibilities.
ZURULINK Africa Magazine journalists should maintain their independence by avoiding discussions of advertising needs, goals, and problems except where those are directly related to the business of the newsroom.
The news and advertising departments may properly confer on the layout and configuration of the magazine (though not on specific content) or the timing of special sections, and on the timing and placement of commercials or web advertising. The departments may also work together in designing new print, web offerings to make sure that the result is viable both journalistically and economically.
Advertising and “advertorials” (paid text) must not resemble news content.

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ZURULINK AFRICA MAGAZINE EDITORIAL POLICY GUIDELINES & OBJECTIVES