SMF News Code of Ethics
- Preamble
This code, read together with Section 16 of the Constitution of South Africa of South Africa, presents the requirements for ethical journalistic practice. It applies to all members of the Stellenbosch Media Forum (SMF) news team. SMF News is a publication run by the Bachelor of Arts Honours students of the Department of Journalism at Stellenbosch University (SU). SMF subscribes to the South African Press Council’s Press Code. In this regard, SMF’s reports are “independent scrutiny of the forces that shape society”, as set out by the Press Code’s Preamble, as well as section 2 of the Code.
The code serves as guidelines and principles which all SMF News members must strive to uphold when researching, reporting, and writing news that is of interest to the Stellenbosch community and surrounding areas; this means information that is relevant to the public and is important for them to know. SMF journalists will commit to accuracy, clarity, minimising harm, independence and impartiality, privacy, accountability, and responsible use of user-generated content and social media.
SMF News pledges to uphold Freedom of expression, as stated in Section 16 of the South African Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
- Chapter 1
1. Accuracy:
The SMF News team/journalists will:
1.1 Only provide factual information and must ensure that said facts are verified prior to publication. The misrepresentation of facts, whether deliberate or due to a lack of prudence, is considered equal to producing false information. The team will strive to use concise language to make information clear to readers.
1.2 Stay up to date with news events in their community to ensure facts can be placed in context.
1.3 Take care to avoid hype and sensationalism in both headlines and article content.
1.4 Actively participate in the editing process to improve the accuracy of writing.
1.5 Gather information thoroughly, whether via interviews or documents and if any new information surfaces, to update the news article accordingly.
1.6 The team will strive to ensure information that is reported is fair and accurate, and shall avoid distorting information (e.g., selecting only parts of information).
1.7 Inaccuracies shall be rectified promptly, and corrections and apologies will receive the necessary attention. The right of reply, the audi alteram partem principle, will be afforded to all subjects of critical reporting, as the Press Code requires. This right of reply will be applied within the time constraints of fair reporting allowed to give a subject of such critical reporting ample time to respond. This time allowed, however, may not be abused by a subject to delay or prevent critical reporting.
2. Clarity
The SMF News team/journalists will:
2.1. Ensure that stories are told in the context that they occurred.
2.2. Endeavour to be as simple and unambiguous as possible in the content they produce.
2.3. Clearly distinguish between facts, opinions, allegations, rumours, and analysis. Opinion articles and content will be subject to Section 7 of the SA Press Code regarding “Protected comment”.
2.4. Not distort the content of news photos or videos.
2.5. Provide clear and concise information on social media.
3. Minimising Harm
The SMF News team/journalists aim to treat their sources, subjects, colleagues and the public with respect and dignity to minimise harm and protect our audiences, as well as contributors. SMF News pledges to minimise harm by:
3.1 Treating everyone equally and being non-discriminatory in all encounters with interviewees, as well as in published articles.
3.2 Referring to any statuses only when necessary for the interest of the public to avoid negative or biased language.
3.3 Maintaining a balance between the right to report in the interest of the public and the duty to avoid content that could cause violence, war propaganda or hate speech, as set out by the subsection of Section 16 of the South African Contstitution’s Bill of Rights.
3.4 Being cautious and respectful when covering matters that relate to the elderly, the differently abled, South African cultural customs, and the dignity of bereavement and the dignity of bereaved subjects of reporting.
3.5 Reporting about children (minors) will at all times be in line with the requirements of the Children’s Act and relevant sections of the Criminal Procedures Act.
3.6 Labelling content that could be explicit or upsetting to readers.
3.7 Avoiding the use of jargon by using clear and precise language.
3.8 Ensuring the accurate portrayal of subjects in photojournalism and not editing any photos without clearly indicating it as such to readers when such editing is deemed necessary.
3.9 Ensuring comments and criticism are protected even if it is extreme, unjust, unbalanced, exaggerated or prejudiced, as long as it is without malice, is a matter of public interest, has taken into fair account all facts that are either true or reasonably so and is presented in a manner that it appears to clearly be comment, as determined by the South African Press Code as set out in Section of the Code regarding “Protected comment.”
4. Independence and impartiality:
The SMF News team/journalists will, in accordance with the relevant sections of the SA Press Code, and specifically Section 2:
4.1. Endeavour to be as objective as humanly possible in their reporting of the news; while complete objectivity is unrealistic, members should, to the best of their ability, leave personal biases out of their work.
4.2. Avoid any conflicts of interest and should not allow anything to influence their reporting.
4.3. Not accept incentives (monetary or otherwise) that could influence their journalistic integrity.
4.4. Endeavour to maintain strict boundaries with their sources to avoid any partiality or even the appearance of partiality.
4.5. Not allow politics and advertising to influence editorial copy.
4.6. Not wear any paraphernalia on the job that implies any type of allegiance, whether political or otherwise.
4.7. Maintain editorial independence from Stellenbosch University.
5. Privacy:
The SMF News team/journalists will:
5.1. Maintain a sense of respect and consideration regarding individuals’ private lives, with one’s right to privacy only being overridden in cases where it is legitimately in the best interest of the public.
5.2. Take care not to disclose any more personal information than that which is strictly necessary, to prevent potential intrusion on a source’s privacy.
5.3. Take care not to provide information which could result in the identification of survivors of rape, gender-based violence (GBV), or any other kind of sexual violence (including sexual intimidation and harassment). This reporting will be conducted in accordance with the Criminal Procedures Act’s stipulations.
6. Accountability:
SMF News believes that accountability is essential for responsible journalism. We are committed to maintaining transparency, correcting mistakes, and upholding ethical standards in all aspects of our reporting.
We aim to foster trust between our audience and ourselves by establishing the following steps:
6.1 SMF News journalists will take full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of their work.
6.2 If errors occur, we will acknowledge and correct them with transparency, whether through a retraction, correction, or explanation.
6.3 Contact information for SMF News will be made easily accessible to encourage open communication with our audience.
6.4 Feedback from readers will be read, considered, and engaged with in a meaningful way.
6.5 Our editorial team will be prepared to explain and defend the decisions behind the publication of our articles.
6.6 Information provided by sources will be managed and safeguarded responsibly to ensure accuracy and accountability.
6.7 Anonymous sources will only be used when justified and verified.
6.8 We will accept and abide by the rulings and decisions of SMF’s ombud, as determined by the requirements of the SA Press Code.
6.9 Any deliberate violation of this code will be handled at the discretion of SMF News leadership, with appropriate consequences determined by senior officials.
- Chapter 2
Note: For the purposes of this document, “social media” refers to Instagram, Facebook, X formerly Twitter, and Bluesky. where SMF News has a presence, as well as any other opinion blogs or social media websites that SMF team members may use to gather and share information.
The SMF News team/journalists will:
- Ensure that the SMF Code of Ethics is clear and easy for all website and social media users to access.
- Maintain that any social media or website comments left by readers do not necessarily reflect the values of the SMF team. Comments will be monitored and, where necessary, removed if they do not adhere to the country’s defamation requirements and those of the Press Code.
- Be extra vigilant when fact-checking and corroborating any information gathered through social media.
- Take screenshots of information gathered through social media for later reference, as information on social media is often taken down by platform regulators or deleted by users.
- Clearly attribute any information that was gathered through social media as such.
- Declare their affiliation with SMF News when using social media for journalistic purposes.
- Clearly distinguish between personal and journalistic use of social media.
- Keep in mind that their personal social media activity is still publicly available and will therefore reflect on SMF News. Team members are encouraged to keep SMF values in mind when publicly posting on social media.