The Sealives Initiative is an independent Canadian Not-for-Profit media company dedicated to telling factual stories of human interaction with the world’s oceans.
As such we adhere to normally recognized journalistic standards with specific modifications unique to our approach and mission.
Above everything, we are committed to accuracy, honesty, fairness and transparency in our published work and in everything that we do. This is a working document, open to revision.
Content
- We strive to be honest, accurate, truthful and fair. We do not distort or fabricate facts or data. Images are processed to maintain the aesthetic standards of our output and improve the suitability of images for upload and download to and from our website and social media channels. The same is true for audio and audio/visual material.
- We edit or manipulate photos, audio or audio visual material only if doing so doesn’t affect its news content, misrepresent the event it may depict or affect its meaning in the eyes of anyone seeing or hearing it.
- We seek to provide accurate context for all reporting.
- We seek out diverse voices that can contribute important perspectives on the subject(s) at hand.
- We seek to ensure that sources are reliable, And, to the maximum extent possible, make clear who and what our sources are, what motivations they may have and any conditions people have set for providing information. When we are unsure of information, we omit it or make clear that it has not been corroborated.
- We work to correct errors quickly, completely and visibly, and make it easy for our audience to bring errors to our attention.
- It is our goal to clearly distinguish fact from opinion in all content.
- We hold contributors and sources responsible for the accuracy of the materials and information they provide.
- We routinely share draft content with our sources for the purposes of fact checking and allowing sources to make their contributions as accurate as possible. We maintain independent editorial control of all content however, and provide independent commentary and context in all cases. This includes disclosing if we believe the source has a conflict of interest–perceived or otherwise.
- Contributors and our editors do not allow the interests of advertisers or others funding our work to affect the integrity of our content.
- We only republish content from other outlets with permission, and we clearly identify content that was previously published or is being concurrently published at another outlet.
- We select our content partners carefully to ensure they align with our mission and values.
- We share content only via prior agreement. If you would like to reuse any of our content please contact info@sealives.org.
Objectivity and Fairness
- Although we strive for objectivity and fairness, our work and our editorial position presupposes that the preservation of the world’s ecosystems such that they remain healthy and self-renewing is the optimal outcome for all, regardless of what the opinions of individual sources or contributors may be. We are politically agnostic and inclusive within this context.
- We use racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality and political affiliation identifiers only if they are specifically relevant to the story and the matter at hand.
- We seek to advocate for specific positions and solutions for environmental problems based upon the insights provided by our sources. These opinions are ours, based upon the knowledge we have gained through our work. In every instance that we express our opinion we seek to make it clear that this is what we are doing.
- Contributors may express their own opinions in their work but only if they are clearly delineated as such, they don’t violate our overarching editorial standards and the information they are based upon is credible.
Quotations
- We clean up random utterances such as pauses, “um” or “you know” unless they materially alter the meaning.
- We allow separate phrases of a quote separated by ellipsis (“I will raise taxes… but only if necessary,” the president said.) as long as it does not change the source’s intended meaning.
- We allow separate phrases of a quote to be separated by attribution (“I will raise taxes,” the president said. “But only if necessary.”) as long as it does not change the source’s intended meaning.
Audiovisual Material
- We edit interviews for length and to clean up random utterances such as pauses, “um” or “you know” unless they materially alter the meaning.
Financial Interests
- We seek to clearly identify our sources of funding and in-kind sponsorship on our website. In all instances, we seek sources of funding that align with our stated purpose.
Community Activities
- Our contributors and editors are encouraged to be involved in the communities and activities that we cover, but these activities will be disclosed in our coverage.
- All of our content is published only after objective scrutiny by our editorial staff to ensure any conflicts of interest are mitigated or disclosed.
Plagiarism and Attribution
- We follow, and expect our contributors to follow normal journalists standards of plagiarism and attribution.
Professional Conduct
- We follow, and expect our contributors and staff to follow normal journalistic standards of professional conduct.
Hate Speech
- We abhor hate speech and are opponents of it. It is not our role to govern the behavior of our sources.
- We consider the perspectives of those offended by hateful expression when making publication decisions.
- We consider the climate for free expression when making publication decisions. Regardless, we avoid the inclusion of hate speech where at all possible, and only include it if it is vital to the story and conveyed in its proper context. We may allude to hate speech made by our sources or others without quoting it directly.
- We support local, national or international laws to combat hate speech.
Obscenities
- We will use obscenities, vulgarities or slurs only in direct quotations and only if the quote is essential to the story.
- We will apply the same standards regarding obscenities, vulgarities and slurs to reader comments on stories that are applied to the story itself.
Privacy
- We will voluntarily withhold information we have gathered when requested if we deem the individual’s request to be valid, based on our judgment and professional standards.
- We reserve the right to publish material that we have previously voluntarily withheld if we determine that the material has become newly relevant in such a way that our previous decision to withhold should be overturned.
- We use discretion when it comes to interviewing and publishing material from trauma victims or bystanders because we understand that to do so may cause additional harm to individuals.
Sensational Material
- We will run sensitive material that might be offensive to specific members of the audience after internal debate has demonstrated a clear public interest in and value from the publication.
- We will run sensitive material when it reflects reality.
- We will facilitate responses from the public to publication of sensitive material.
- We will refrain from running sensitive material specifically or solely for the revenue purposes, such as increased digital traffic.
- We will put all sensitive material into context.
- We will consider all the stakeholders affected by a decision (e.g., subject of the image or text description, audience, broader public, etc.)
Online Commenting
- We welcome comments on content we publish. While we are open to airing controversial and unpopular viewpoints, comments, like the rest of our content, should move conversations forward constructively toward solutions.
- We reserve the right to edit or to choose not to publish comments we deem to contain inappropriate content, including name-calling, offensive language, verbal abuse, etc. Comments that are self-promoting and offer little to the conversation will likely not be approved.
Social Media
- We accurately reflect the content of stories in social media posts.
- Any social media post that we make that leads directly to a paywall, promotional offer or subscription request will indicate that this is the case.
- If we make a mistake in a social media post, we delete the original post and publish a corrected version with an indication that the new post is a correction. We note that we have edited or deleted inaccurate posts.
- We encourage staff members to retweet, reblog, share and otherwise pass along things they find interesting on social media with the understanding that their doing so represents their own interests and not those of Sealives.