Code of conduct
We follow universally accepted principles of professional journalism that require a responsible, honest and fair pursuit of facts – without any fear and favor.
We stand for gender justice, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and faith, democracy and federalism, and economic and climate justice and identify these among our core ideals.
All content published at Lok Sujag is rigorously checked for accuracy and fairness. We welcome constructive criticism and do not hesitate in accepting errors and mistakes.
We do not indulge in slander, propaganda and hate speech.
We do not invade anyone’s privacy. We do not talk to, secure information from and take pictures of or audio record, videograph anyone without their consent.
We do not pay or promise to pay anything in cash or in kind in return for the information we obtain.
We do not accept money, gifts or any favors in return for publishing specific information.
We fully disclose our identity, motives and methods in our work. As a rule, we do not allow our reporters and writers to use pseudonyms. However, if public exposure could compromise security of a reporter or a source, we can use alternate name but only after clearly stating that the real name is withheld for specified reasons.
Our staff members and contributors have to declare conflict of interest if they have any direct or indirect association with a political party, a religious organization; any union/association or a business especially when they are working on an issue that is directly or indirectly linked to any of these.
We differentiate between the accused, the indicted and the convicted in all court/criminal cases.
We do not identify or use images of minor children or others who are victims of rape or sexual crimes and of people living with illnesses that are socially stigmatized – unless they explicitly allow us to do so. In the case of other content related to children, we seek permission from their parents/ guardians after informing them about the potential implications.
We do not digitally alter a photograph or a video whether through the use of Artificial Intelligence tools or otherwise without disclosing it to our audience. This does not include routine digital improvements in contrast, color saturation and other similar visual editing parameters related to the quality of an image. This also does not include alterations done to produce an art work but we make sure that such art work does not get confused with the real.
When we use an image or a video clip generated through Artificial Intelligence tools, we explicitly declare it by stamping the image with the words ‘AI Generated’.
Our content creators can take help from AI tools in fulfilling various tasks and we encourage it. However, we do not take these tools as the main source of information and whatever help do they render goes through human checks and is thoroughly fact-checked and properly referenced.
This document will be periodically updated and reviewed to respond to the rapidly changing news media landscape and the evolving rules of engagement in news generation and consumption.
Anyone who points out errors in our content is treated with respect. When a correction is made, the error in the previous versions of the content is duly acknowledged. Anything unfair or factually inaccurate is duly acknowledged, with regrets and apology where needed.
If you want to point to any violation of this Code of Conduct in any of our published content, please, inform us about it by filling in the following form.