GroundTruth

BY C.M. Sennott

GlobalPost began a beta test by about 100 site evaluators today. And so we welcomed the first small community on to the site in advance of our live launch on January 12, which is just four days away and counting.

Today was an incredibly productive day. We moved onto the test site almost 90 stories — well-reported, well-written, well-crafted pieces of journalism from every corner of the world.

Today a few of the stories I edited that we look forward to sharing with you on Monday came from our correspondent in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jean MacKenzie and our Washington writer and long-time colleague Jack Farrell and an incredible essay and photo gallery that we are putting together from acclaimed photographer Seamus Murphy. We also loaded to the site a multimedia journey by Greg Warner through Afghanistan. I don’t want to give away what these stories are about. You’ll find out on Monday.

But I will tell you the journalism that is flowing onto our site is world class.

I am incredibly proud of the journalists out there who have joined our team and who are unearthing the kinds of stories that we call GroundTruth. We still have a lot of work to do to get ready for you to come to the site live. So I need to get back to it.

But before I do I need to get to the task at hand which is to continue to publish GROUNDTRUTH: GlobalPost’s Field Guide for Correspondents. This guide which is being published on the blog is a statement of purpose, a field guide for correspondents about the values of journalism that we hold to be true. Here are the next two chapters, four and five. Tomorrow, I will post the last two chapters.

GROUNDTRUTH: GLOBALPOST’S FIELD GUIDE FOR CORRESPONDENTS

FOUR:

Be fair and accurate.

Out of careful listening comes fair, truthful reporting. And truth is always the best defense against libel.

Check the facts all the time. Check spelling, particularly the spelling of names and be sure you have the proper title of a source. We are employing the AP style book. GlobalPost is also developing a policy for corrections and clarifications on the site. And any correspondent whose work requires persistent corrections on issues of material fact, will be warned that their relationship with GlobalPost will be terminated if a pattern of inaccurate reporting continues to occur.

Accuracy matters and our reputation as a news organization and your reputation as a correspondent rely on getting it right. There is a great axiom of deadline reporting: When in doubt, leave it out. Live by that. Only write about the things you know, the things you’ve seen with your own eyes and be sure you have clear and accurate attribution on everything else. If you live by these relatively simple and straightforward rules, you will always be on solid footing.

We discourage the use of unnamed sources. We believe it is far better to get a comment on the record. We encourage correspondents to always try their best to get a name attached to a comment. Sometimes it requires asking more than once, but persistence is better than accepting a blind quote and finding out later it is unusable.

We understand that there are circumstances in which anonymity is necessary to protect the life or livelihood of a source, but that is the only occasion in which unnamed sources should be used. GlobalPost retains the right to request a reporter to share with a senior editor any unnamed source of a story. GlobalPost also forbids any reporter from writing on a story in which they have a vested economic interest or a clear political bias. The spirit of full disclosure matters in reporting and we request that you let us know if you believe there is any potential line that might be crossed during the course of your reporting.

We are aware that our correspondents operate in many corners of the world where there are different legal standards for journalism and different ideas about what constitutes fairness. But we hold to a very American tradition of journalism in this regard and one that we believe is a proud tradition.

Our research shows legal precedent is being established that online news organizations will be held to the legal standards of reporting in the country from which they originate. As the United States has perhaps the most fierce protections of freedom of the press of any country in the world, we believe that good, honest, accurate and fair reporting from any place in the world will always put us on solid legal ground. (GlobalPost has a libel insurance policy which offers protections for the organization and those reporting for it. If anyone has questions about the policy, we will make ourselves available.) If you are ever working on a story that you believe is potentially libelous or if any one you are reporting on threatens any legal action, you are obliged to get in touch with me promptly and directly.

FIVE:

Be honest.

Be sure you are accredited as a journalist and work within the guidelines set by the press office in your respective country. Always identify yourself as a reporter when you are working in the field.

Any fabrication of quotes or made-up reporting will not be tolerated and will be considered grounds for GlobalPost to immediately end its relationship with a correspondent. The same prohibitions on fabrication hold true for multimedia. And GlobalPost forbids the manipulation of any photos, audio or video in a manner that distorts reality or misrepresents any facts or quotes.

Plagiarism of any kind will also be grounds for terminating a contract with GlobalPost. Plagiarism includes not only directly copying someone else’s words, but also borrowing quotes, ideas, images and insights without proper attribution.

GlobalPost reporters should not accept gifts or any payment from a source involved in a story, nor should they offer any gifts or payment in return for getting a story.

Any time a correspondent or columnists is provided travel or lodging as part of a reporting trip, this should be discussed in advance with an editor. Typically, we will not permit such trips. But there are exceptions when GlobalPost believes it wise and sometimes necessary to accept free flights on international aid and trade missions or military flights. We may also, for example, allow our global health or auto writers to take an expense-paid trip by an industry group as long as the correspondent has clearly established with his or her host that none of the services-in-kind will influence the outcome of the reporting. If GlobalPost does accept such a trip, we will let the viewers of the site know so they have full transparency and can judge for themselves if any undue influence has crept in to the coverage as a result. We the editors will be working very hard to be sure it does not.