Winnipeg Independent Media Centre

IMC-Winnipeg Editorial Policy - v.04.12.01d

Mission:

The IMC-Winnipeg mission is to publish news and commentary not usually reported in mainstream news media; to facilitate the publishing of news and commentary by a wide range of activists answering the call to become the media; to counter the conservative slant of corporate-owned news media; and to serve the greater interests of the people of Winnipeg and Manitoba.

Policy Overview:

Our website uses the open publishing model of Indymedia.org network members, and anyone with access to the Internet can freely view our website; post a news article, opinion piece, or event notice; or add a comment to an existing news article or opinion piece. Posts appear immediately on the website, as submitted.

Our editorial policy is intended to limit abuse of the open publishing model and protect those contributing to our mission. Members, on a voluntary basis, have administrative control and may remove or edit any post which violates the intent or interferes with the operation of the website.

Publishing Policy:

Views and opinions posted on this website do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of IMC-Winnipeg members.

Due to the nature of open publishing, it isn't possible to always know what is posted to the website -- particularly posts to the newswire section. We encourage visitors who discover a contravention of our stated policy to contact us at imc-winnipeg@indymedia.org with the offending post's ID number or date and title, and a brief description of the contravention.

Editorial Control:

We will remove duplicate posts, failed posts (garbled, partial or empty files), accidental posts, and posts which interfere with the smooth operation of the website (overly-large files, virus-contaminated files, etc.). We provide user registration to enable posters to make such 'fixes' themselves, but we will also act to resolve problems when necessary.
We reserve the right to remove posts originating from any agency, department or individual working for a corporation, government, religious group or mainstream news outlet. We reserve the right to remove posts which promote commercial, political or religious interests; or promote views or link to websites that fall clearly outside our mission.
We reserve the right to remove any post which is hateful, abusive, racist, threatening, defamatory or which is offensive due to stereotyping or generalizations made in reference to gender, ethnicity, age, religion, culture, sexual orientation, disability, appearance, or social or economic status.
We will act as necessary to protect our continued operation, our members and children. We will remove material which appears to be part of an organized attack; is clearly libelous, lewd or pornographic; identifies children or puts them at risk; promotes harmful and illegal activities; and/or promotes or sensationalizes the sufferings of others.
We reserve the right to exercise our judgment in the application of editorial policy and in any matter which affects the continued operation of this website, the involvement of our members, and/or interferes with the mission of IMC-Winnipeg.

Events Notices:

Posts to the events listing must be announcements of events which are reasonably expected to attract attendance from persons in Manitoba. Events unlikely to draw attendance from persons in Manitoba, but of interest to Manitoban activists, should be posted in the newswire section.

We reserve the right to move posts from the Events listing to the Newswire. We reserve the right to remove announcements which are commercial in nature or which promote the activities of political parties or religious groups (unless important to social justice activists), or which otherwise contravene our policy.

We reserve the right to remove comments which do not request or provide further information on the event.

Feature Articles:

While feature article contributors do not need to become members of IMC-Winnipeg, the actual posting of articles to the Features section (centre column) is restricted to members of IMC-Winnipeg, who are expected to uphold our vision of activist journalism.

Articles by non-members intended for the Features section should be posted to the newswire, with any photos, and including a line at the top of the article stating "Intended for Feature Section". Alternatively, where assistance with editing is wanted, the article should be sent by email to imc-winnipeg-features@indymedia.org.

For further information or assistance with contributing a feature article, please contact us at imc-winnipeg-features@indymedia.org.