- Equity News and Equity Weekly staff affirms the values of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) that states:
"Everyone has the right to the freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".
- Equity News and Equity Weekly staff acknowledges both its right of freedom of expression and its obligation to act in a professional way and to adhere to strict ethical principles and international standards of conduct.
- Equity News and Equity Weekly staff affirms the values implicit in its programme name of equity by placing the principles of fairness, balance and impartiality at the centre of its journalism.
- Equity News as an elections news bulletin fulfils specific demands and extra attention is paid to ensuring that strict equitable principles are upheld during election campaign periods by allocating percentages of air time to political parties in its broadcasts. These percentages are made public.
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Given the above and in recognition of its commitment to public service broadcasting, Equity News and Equity Weekly staff will at all times endeavour to:
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Respect the right of the public to be informed as a fundamental value in building an open, transparent and democratic society.
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Promote the freedom to report independently about matters of public interest and to present a wide spectrum of expressions, opinions and ideas.
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Provide information that is true, accurate and based on fact. Accuracy requires not only getting facts right, but arguing with precision and logic, and using images and language appropriate to their context and meaning.
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Provide information that is fair, balanced and impartial . Impartiality means reporting in a way that is appropriate and fair to the subject-matter and the genre of the broadcast. If reporting conflicting sides, the different sides of the story should be covered in a fair and even-handed way.
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Balance the coverage of controversial issues, but this does not mean complete neutrality or indifference to moral and democratic precepts. The public should not be deprived of probing journalism and argued points of view that uncover important information, whether this be the activities of government, political parties, business, crime etc.
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Uphold authenticity, reporting without distortion. Editorials and commentary will be identified as such.
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Apply the need for fairness to everyone: whether the person concerned is a public figure or an ordinary citizen, he/she has the right to be dealt with in a fair way.
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Reject material that encourages discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, creed or gender.
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Respect standards of taste and decency; exercise sensitivity for the welfare of minors; do not intrude into private grief and distress unless justified by public interest considerations.
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Admit errors and correct them when necessary.
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