Oxford Indymedia Editorial Guidelines

Oxford Indymedia is a site for reporting, promoting, and commenting on community, grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial social justice, environmental, and political issues. It is run by the Oxford Indymedia Collective (Oxford IMC) - an open group of volunteers who maintain and make decisions about the site.

Oxford IMC is dedicated to the open publishing ethos. This means that you can post any story or event, as long as it does not break our guidelines. The guidelines ensure the site stays true to it's aims of providing an alternative to corporate dominated mainstream media.

The guidelines are not rules. The interpretation of them is decided by Oxford IMC. Whenever content is deleted or hidden, the person that has done so posts what they have done and why on the publicly accessible imc-oxford-features mailing list.

There are two areas to the site that allow open posting: the newswire and the calendar. Anybody can suggest content for the features section, but only site administrators can upload it.

Guidelines

All content

Content may be deleted if it includes personal information (including photos) that identifies an individual.

Oxford IMC is part of the UK Indymedia Collective. Content that breaks the UK IMC guidelines may be hidden. Hidden content can still be seen on the view all posts page. Content that breaks the Oxford IMC guidelines, but not the UK IMC guidelines (e.g. is not local to Oxford), may be deselected from Oxford Indymedia but will still be available on UK Indymedia.

• Not local: Items that do not have an explicit link to Oxford and the surrounding area. Explaination of what is meant by not local.
• Not news: Stories which are clearly purely comment, opinion, or rants unrelated to a recent event (does not apply to comments, but we encourage you not to rant - more on comments below).
• Discriminatory: Items using language, imagery, or other forms of communication promoting racism, fascism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, or any other form of discrimination or oppression.
• Inaccurate: Items that are inaccurate or misleading.
• Promoting hierarchy: The newswire is designed to generate a grassroots news resource, not a notice-board for hierarchically structured organisations (including political parties).
• Advertising: Content with personal or commercial promotions.
• Repeated: Items that are reposts (e.g. a stories that is already present as a comment).
• Without an English translation: You can post in any language, but you should provide an English translation as well. Free translation tools are available on the web - just search for them.
• Personal attack: Articles and/or comments that contain abusive language against other activists or site users. Please make your point without resorting to personal abuse.
• Disruptive: Contributions by individuals who habitually publish above mentioned discouraged content.

Calendar Events

Anybody can add local events to the site calendar. Events are subject to the guidelines above, as well as:

• Non-political: Events which do not relate in any way to radical or progressive politics, or to grassroots community activism, may be deleted.

Comments

Anybody can add comments at the end of each article. Comments are subject to the guidelines above. They can be used to:

• State an opinion about any given posting.
• Add information.
• Correct inaccurate or malicious information.
• Rectify misinformation.

Corrections and updates to a story can be given prominent status by contacting the imc-oxford-features mailing list with the qualified accurate information.

Features

The features on the middle column of the Oxford IMC website reflect postings to the newswire. Features are highlighting specific issues to make them more accessible. They are put together by volunteers communicating on the imc-oxford-features mailing list.

Anybody can join the features list and propose a new feature for the middle column. A proposal can take the form of an idea or a completed feature. Features usually have a summary of between 50 and 80 words, and include at least one link to the newswire, preferably also links to background information.

If no one objects to the feature proposal within 24-hours, and if it is completed, it will be uploaded to the middle column. The 24-hour rule ensures that everybody can contribute to the middle column and allows time for collaborative improvements and considerations.

Read more about features.

More about local and non-local posts

Even though we talk about Oxford, for Indymedia purposes we mean a wider area. We define 'Oxford' as any place that is closer to Oxford than another local Indymedia. The nearest other Indymedia collectives are: London; Cambridge; Birmingham; Bristol; South Coast. (This is not because us in Oxford are trying to take over the country! It is to allow nearby places such as Reading and Banbury to have a local Indymedia outlet, but also to allows people there to develop their own local Indymedia collectives in the future if they wish.)

What is specific to Oxford?

There are a few criteria:

• The post is about something happening in Oxford.
• The post is about people from Oxford.
• The post lets people from Oxford know how they can be involved.

Example 1: An international story

• A posting about the situation in Iraq would be hidden.
• A posting from someone from Oxford relating their experiences in Iraq would not be hidden (but remember to make it clear that the person is from Oxford).
• A posting discussing how the amount spent by the UK on bombing Iraq could have funded x amount of hospital care for people in Oxford would not be hidden.

Example 2: A non-local event

• Details of a demonstration in Manchester would be hidden.
• Details of a demonstration in Manchester with transport from Oxford information would not be hidden.

But surely national and international events have relevance to people in Oxford? Yes! But Oxford Indymedia is not the site for them. UK Indymedia is where they belong.

Legal disclaimer

Oxford IMC is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of Oxford indymedia. Although Oxford IMC volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Oxford Indymedia 2010-10-16

Oxford Indymedia, 16.10.2010 00:00