The Brag Media Editorial Code

The Brag Media Editorial Code was created to preserve our values and integrity. It offers transparency for our readers and serves as a reference of The Brag Media’s values and responsibilities for our employees, contractors, management, and clients.The Editorial Code is more a True North than a list of rules. It serves as a reminder of the business’ principles and can be called upon when met with tough judgement calls as an individual or company as a whole.

Code of Ethics and Balanced Reporting

Journalists at The Brag Media commit to following the code of ethics below;

• Report and interpret honestly, striving for accuracy, fairness and disclosure of all essential facts. Do not suppress relevant available facts, or give distorting emphasis.
• Do your utmost to give a fair opportunity for reply.
• Aim to attribute information to its source. Where a source seeks anonymity, do not agree without first considering the source’s motives and any alternative attributable source. Where confidences are accepted, respect them in all circumstances.
• Do not allow personal interest, or any belief, commitment, payment, gift or benefit, to undermine your accuracy, fairness or independence.
• Disclose conflicts of interest that affect, or could be seen to affect, the accuracy, fairness or independence of your journalism. Do not improperly use a journalistic position for personal gain.
• Use fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material. Identify yourself and your employer before obtaining any interview for publication or broadcast. Never exploit a person’s vulnerability or ignorance of media practice.
• Present pictures and sound which are true and accurate. Any manipulation likely to mislead should be disclosed.
• Do not plagiarise.
• Do your utmost to achieve fair correction of errors.

Rectifying Mistakes in Content

Mistakes happen, especially in the fast-paced news cycle of digital reporting. However, The Brag Media has policies around ensuring that when mistakes are made, they are rectified and quickly as possible.

These corrections are made in the form of:

• Updated articles, either at the top of the piece of at the bottom, making it very clear what has been updated and why
• Updates to an article within the piece or via a new article, as new information comes to light

Complaints and corrections can be made to [email protected].

Division Between Business and Editorial

While The Brag Media is supported by commercial partnerships and advertiser-funded business models, our initial allegiance is to our readers and the general public interest. Therefore, despite our commercial models, we would never prevent a story that is of public interest and that we know will resonate with our readers, from being published.

Our branded content ties in seamlessly with the rest of the content across The Brag Media’s publications. This is because it is largely created by the same content creators. The Brag Media does not have native content writers and non-native content writers, our core editorial team often contributes to brand-funded content.

Enterprise journalism

The Brag Media encourages its content team to pursue stories that develop outside of the general stream of news and PR. Enterprise journalism can unlock scoops, exclusives and agenda-setting copy that travels far and wide.

These stories won’t break every day. They require hard work, competitive spirit and deep contacts. The Brag Media’s writers should stay hungry. On the rare occasion when a major story is missed, the team should apply those competitive traits and figure out what went wrong, and rectify it.

The Brag Media’s content team is also encouraged to pursue “passion projects.” Many great artists got a hand-up early in their career when a journalist spotted their talent before anyone else. If you’ve discovered someone, something that deserves to be brought into the light, don’t keep it a secret.

If in doubt, ask

Editors are there to guide, to plan, to challenge. If in any doubt about a story, a contact, or an approach, ask the editor.

Junkets, conflicts of interest and freebies

It should go without saying that The Brag Media staff and its contractors do not use their alliance with the company to obtain goods and services for free. However, being gifted goods and services, or using their positions for the purpose of product reviews or criticism-style content is okay.

Brands should understand that sending staff or the company products or services does not warrant or guarantee coverage. Should a conflict of interest arise and a content piece has been approved by The Brag Media, that conflict of interest should be noted within the content.

Our Duty To Freelance Contractors

The Brag Media will always be transparent and straightforward with our local and international freelancers regrading feedback and payment rates. This means they will know where they stand regarding the fees we offer freelancers, and we will always strive to pay our freelancers promptly, and in most cases instantly via our payment technology.

Australian Media Laws

It is the responsibility of The Brag Media, its staff and the writers it contracts, to maintain informed of Australian media laws and updates to those laws, including but not limited to defamation, contempt of court and copyright.

Giving Credit Where Credit’s Due

At The Brag Media, we believe in giving credit where credit’s due. If we’re not the first publication to break a story, we must attribute and back link to the publication that did so. This also applies to attributing sources, information, and quotes. If it wasn’t sourced by us, we must correctly attribute and back link. Our writers are also encouraged to attribute the writer as well as the publication where possible.

Reporting In The Public Interest

The Brag Media and its writers can use the company’s lawyer when determining whether to investigate or publish a story where contentious factors are involved. We aim to strike the right balance between public interest and the likeliness of the story to cause damage to the story’s subjects. In cases where Australia’s defamation laws are a factor, writers seek the counsel of The Brag Media’s lawyer and follow their advice accordingly, in collaboration with the Managing Editor.

Safety and Due Diligence When Reporting on Serious Issues

Issues and incidents related to suicide, violence, substance abuse and mental health are often covered across The Brag Media titles. When covering these serious issues, it is our responsibility to ensure a correct content warning or trigger warning is included at the top of the article and in the social media post, and that relevant resources are included at the bottom of the article.

Gaining Confirmation to Verify Information

When possible, The Brag Media goes to the correct lengths in an effort to verify a story, statement, or source. We trust that other publications have gained their information in a professional manner that exercises creativity, but we should show integrity ourselves by confirming the information on our end, and adding in extra information where possible. This is often done by reaching out directly to the source and conducting an interview, as well as conducting further research to add to the piece.

Protecting Sources

If a decision has been made to protect a source, due to the safety of that source – either in relation to their employer or a genuine fear of physical harm – writers must outline the reason to keep a source anonymous or the choice to use a pseudonym. Internally this choice is to be made by the Head of Content.

In cases not relating to the aforementioned however, we aim to name our sources as we believe it gives more credibility to our work and shows journalistic integrity.

The Right of Reply

As per the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics, writers will do the utmost to offer a right of reply to relevant parties in an article. If an official response has not been received at time of publication, the article should reflect that the opportunity to respond was given.

Quoting Sources

According to Article 3 of the MEAA Code of Ethics, journalists must “… aim to attribute information to its source. Where a source seeks anonymity, do not agree without first considering the source’s motives and any alternative attributable source. Where confidences are accepted, respect them in all circumstances.”

The Australian Press Council’s fifth general principle states: “… information obtained by dishonest or unfair means, or the publication of which would involve a breach of confidence, should not be published unless there is an over-riding public interest.”

The Brag Media writers should always get clear consent from an interview subject before recording them. If an interview subject says “off the record” before saying something, writers should honour that what they said afterward is ‘off the record’ and gain clarification when the subject is back on the record.

All quotes within articles should not be changed in a way that changes the quote’s meaning, however it is acceptable for minor amendments for clarification purposes. Please refer to The Brag Media style guide for more information on how to attribute quotes and for the acceptable alterations to quotes (e.g. the use of square brackets).