Satya Hindi: Ethics and Standards

satyahindi.com (hereinafter referred to as Satya Hindi) is an independent News Network with a mission to bring forth the truth and report facts in an impartial, unbiased manner. It shall strive to tell all the truth it can get regarding important and newsworthy issues.

As a network, Satya Hindi shall defend the idea of India, constitutionalism, democracy, secular values, social and gender equality, and freedom of expression.

Satya Hindi has a well-defined Mission Statement underlining its objectives and duties. The promoters and main stakeholders of the company running Satya Hindi, Camword Private Limited, are eminent journalists having a vast experience of Journalism. And they all came together to launch Satya Hindi with a common cause to resist and defeat degenerating tendencies engulfing the Indian Journalism. The motto of the promoters is that the values of Journalism are supreme and must be preserved and defended, for which they shall not hesitate to sacrifice material fortunes.

Satya Hindi shall have an Editorial Board comprising of eminent Journalists to frame policies and standards on ethics and moral issues and to monitor its implementation in letter and spirit.

With the rapid advancement in the field of technology, the media environment is in continuous change mode, therefore, this document can not remain static and will be modified from time to time according to the changing needs and necessities of our times. But the fundamental core values and principles of fair Journalism will always remain unchanged.

Satya Hindi has adopted the following principles for reporting news and expressing views and these principles shall apply on all content published by the Satya Hindi be it text, photos, videos or audio and whether it is on the website or social media platforms or delivered through email or podcasts.

Conflict of Interest

• Satya Hindi is pledged to avoid conflict of interest or the appearance of conflicts that could imperil the ability of our journalists to report or the credibility of their reporting or commentary. Journalists should not accept gifts or favours from people or entities they cover or over whom they might influence coverage.
• Though Satya Hindi is much dependent on the large pool of freelance journalists for its newsgathering and has no control over their conduct in the field, still Satya Hindi takes all caution when picking up a freelance journalist for acquiring news. Satya Hindi shall keep a strict vigil on their conduct and in case any complaint of a violation of these ethics and standards is reported to Satya Hindi and found to be correct, Satya Hindi will take swift action of disassociating itself from such freelancer and will not take its services in future.
• Satya Hindi will make every reasonable effort to be free of obligation to news sources and special interests.
• Satya Hindi shall avoid active involvement in any partisan causes or becoming a direct party or ally to any political party or group, community affairs, social action, demonstrations, etc., that could compromise or seem to compromise its ability to report and edit fairly.

Fair Journalism

The core value of Satya Hindi is truthful and fair journalism and to achieve this, Satya Hindi follows some simple rules. Fairness means completeness.

• A story is not fair if it knowingly and selectively omits a major, important, or significant fact.
• Fairness means that the story essentially covers all relevant aspects and elements of the story, unbiasedly represent all sides and parties involved in the story according to relevance.
• Fairness means that one-sided allegations and accusations against any individual or entity should be avoided and the journalist must take or must have exhausted all options to take the version of the said individual or entity against whom the allegations were floated.
• Fairness also means that a story must not mislead or deceive the readers/ viewers.

Menace of Fake News

• Satya Hindi fully understands the dangers posed by the menace of Fake News all over the world and strives to be highly watchful to check that it does not fall into trap of Fake News.
• Satya Hindi’s editorial team and journalists shall take great care to check the veracity of a news story, data point, statement or claim, picture, and video before uploading and publishing it.
• Satya Hindi’s editorial team and journalists shall try their best to check and verify all facts, data points of a news story to avoid any misreporting. However, despite all the caution and intent to be always fair, mistakes do happen and can happen. In such cases, Satya Hindi shall take corrective measures as and when such mistakes brought to its notice. Please refer to Satya Hindi Correction Policy.
• Views expressed in opinion pieces or videos by writers, experts, analysts, columnists, bloggers or any other person are theirs alone and Satya Hindi shall not try to eliminate, delete or edit them unless it is found to be vulgar, outrageous, spreading communalism, causing hatred against caste, creed, race, gender or religion and be against basic human values. However, Satya Hindi shall check the veracity of facts and data presented in such opinion pieces/ videos and shall have all rights to delete them if found to be untrue. In case, any factual error in such opinion pieces/ videos is brought to Satya Hindi’s notice after its publication, it shall be dealt as per Satya Hindi Correction Policy.

Decency and Taste

• Satya Hindi shall take care that the language of its journalists, columnists, experts, and guest speakers is not offensive, abusive, derogatory, humiliating, and defamatory. In live situations, if any of the panelists or attendees makes any such offensive comments, the host of the show shall immediately censor the guest and the objectionable portion shall be deleted from the recorded version of the show.
• Satya Hindi shall use heightened sensitivity while dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes, victims of violence, accidents, and suicide. Satya Hindi shall not invade the privacy or violate the dignity of persons who are affected/ seriously injured in such incidents. Satya Hindi shall not show dead bodies, gory visuals of violence, lynching, and torture of human beings or animals. In pursuit of presenting the true and complete story, when it becomes necessary to show certain subjects in a critical situation, proper masking of picture/ visuals shall be done.
• Satya Hindi shall not show vulgar, obscene images and avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.