Our Mission
- Foster Community: We share local stories to create a sense of community.
- Empower Engagement: We encourage people to get involved with their community.
- Promote Positivity: We maintain a positive outlook on our region and its future.
- Stay Local: We collaborate with and advocate for local people, ensuring our presence in the community.
- Ensure Ethical News: We provide a local news service that is ethical, accessible, and sustainable.
Our Values
We prioritise local stories, sources, and perspectives. Our goal is to contribute to the development of our region into a prouder, more engaged, more welcoming, more sustainable, and more equitable community. We strive to be accessible and visible to local people whenever possible.
Our Commitment to Ethics
We are dedicated to practising ethical journalism. This means:
- Upholding honesty, accuracy, fairness, and transparency.
- Emphasising a person’s characteristics only when relevant.
- Attributing information to its sources wherever possible.
- Disclosing conflicts of interest.
- Using fair, honest, and responsible methods to obtain information.
- Avoiding plagiarism.
- Respecting individuals’ right to privacy.
- Correcting factual errors promptly.
Editorial Decision-Making
Story ideas or angles will be pursued at our discretion, taking into account available resources and key news values such as impact, proximity, timeliness, currency, conflict, prominence, and abnormality. Advertising clients will not influence our editorial decisions.
Proof-Reading Policy
Generally, sources will not be allowed to preview stories before publication. However, upon request, we will provide a verbal summary of what a source has been quoted as saying to prevent factual errors.
Corrections, Clarifications, and Disclosures
Any corrections, clarifications, or disclosures of actual or perceived conflicts of interest will be included at the bottom of the relevant story.
In addition to our own Editorial Policy, as members of the Local & Independent News Association we also adopt their editorial standards as below
Members of the Local & Independent News Association (LINA) are expected to adopt the editorial standards of LINA, and/or to have their own editorial standards that are consistent with and incorporate all of the editorial standards of LINA.
The LINA editorial standards are:
1. Independence At all times, editorial content will not be influenced by any financial contributions or other considerations from outside entities.
Whenever advertising or other sponsored content is published, that content will be clearly labelled to distinguish it from the member’s own independent editorial content.
2. Accuracy Members aim to ensure that all editorial content is accurate and is presented in context.
3. Fairness Members are committed to the following hallmarks of fairness:
- Providing a reasonable opportunity to respond where allegations or criticisms are made
- Attributing information to its source wherever possible
- Not plagiarising or misrepresenting the work of others
- Informing those we approach or contact that we are journalists
4. Diversity Members aim to be relevant to the community they serve, and to include an appropriately wide diversity of voices, views and issues.
5. Harm and Offence While some content may offend, disturb or annoy, members aim to avoid unnecessary, excessive or gratuitous harm and offence to the extent compatible with their role as a source of public interest news.
6. Privacy Members have a privacy policy relating to the protection and management of any personally identifiable information gathered and/or shared via their platforms.
In addition, they are committed to ensuring that any content which intrudes into the private lives of individuals is appropriate and proportionate when balanced with the public interest in the disclosure of information and freedom of expression.
7. Moderation of comments
The publication encourages contributions and comments on stories. However, those comments should contribute to a civil conversation and they should not be abusive, contain personal attacks, be inflammatory, racist or profane. The publication reserves the right to make the decisions about which comments violate these ground rules and the broader editorial guidelines of LINA, and will moderate comments at its discretion.
8. Advertising
LINA members may accept advertising or sponsored content in a number of forms, including through paid business listings and display advertisements.
Where such advertising is accepted, it will be clearly labelled to distinguish it from editorial content.
9. Accountability and Corrections
Members make all reasonable efforts to abide by LINA’s editorial standards, and invite any community members who feel the standards have been breached to complain in writing.
Material complaints will be taken seriously, and any breaches of these standards will be acknowledged and corrections made.
Glen Innes News is bound by the Standards of Practice of the Australian Press Council. If you believe the Standards may have been breached, you may approach Glen Innes News or make a complaint to the Australian Press Council in writing at www.presscouncil.org.au. The Council may also be contacted on 1800 025 712