Bayside Beacon editorial policy

The Bayside Beacon is an independent hyperlocal news publication for the Bayside local government area of Sydney. We cover community-focused public interest news and important local issues through our website and weekly email newsletter.

Bayside Beacon is dedicated to:

• Fostering community by sharing local stories

• Empowering people to actively participate in community groups, events, and initiatives

• Supporting locals by advocating for residents and maintaining a community presence

• Maintaining a positive outlook on our local area and its prospects

• Ensuring a reliable local news service that is ethical, accessible, and sustainable

As a member of the Local and Independent News Association (LINA), Bayside Beacon is committed to upholding LINA’s editorial standards.

Values

Bayside Beacon will prioritise stories, sources, and perspectives from the local community. The aim is to contribute to the development of a more proud, engaged, and welcoming Bayside community. Efforts will be made to ensure Bayside Beacon is approachable and visible to locals as much as possible.

Ethics

Bayside Beacon is committed to ethical journalism, which encompasses honesty, accuracy, fairness, and the disclosure of pertinent information. This involves focusing on a person's characteristics only when it's relevant, crediting sources whenever feasible, declaring any conflicts of interest, obtaining information through fair and responsible methods, avoiding plagiarism, respecting people’s privacy, and amending factual errors.

Editorial discretion

The pursuit of story ideas or angles is at the discretion of Bayside Beacon, considering available resources and news values like impact, proximity, timeliness, currency, conflict, prominence, and uniqueness. Advertising clients will not be permitted to influence editorial decision-making.

Proof-reading

Typically, sources will not be allowed to preview stories before they are published. However, Bayside Beacon may provide a verbal summary of the quotes attributed to a source upon request to prevent factual inaccuracies.

Disclosures

A foundational principle of quality journalism is to avoid conflicts of interest – or even the appearance of such conflicts. However, when a group of local contributors cover a relatively small geographical area, there will naturally be conflicts that cannot be entirely avoided.

To maintain transparency and trust with our readers, we implement a stringent disclosure policy. For any material disclosures, including significant relationships or financial interests that may influence our content (this includes, but is not limited to, advertising relationships), we will provide a clear “Disclosure” at the beginning of the relevant article. For less material or non-financial disclosures, these will be outlined in a “Transparency Check” at the conclusion of the respective article.

Corrections

Corrections and clarifications can be sought regarding any reported factual inaccuracies. For further details, refer to the Bayside Beacon’s complaints policy.

Attribution

Each article, photo, or image will include the name of its author or creator. Content sponsored by third parties will be clearly marked as such.