Editorial policy

BAJ.by is the web­site of the PA “Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists. The edi­to­r­i­al board of the resource works with­in the Statute aims and tasks of the orga­ni­za­tion and com­plies with the “Code of Jour­nal­ist Ethics”, adopt­ed by BAJ.

The web­site serves as an inter­ac­tive plat­form for BAJ mem­bers’ meet­ings, and also for all those who deal with or inter­est­ed in jour­nal­ism. It is a cor­po­rate resource aimed at strength­en­ing friend­ly and pro­fes­sion­al ties with­in the orga­ni­za­tion and in the whole jour­nal­ist com­mu­ni­ty of Belarus.

BAJ.by is the source of infor­ma­tion of the asso­ci­a­tion activ­i­ties, main events in the field of jour­nal­ism in Belarus and abroad. In addi­tion to the dai­ly news feed, there is also sys­tem­at­ic ana­lyt­i­cal infor­ma­tion about the sit­u­a­tion of mass media in Belarus since 2006. (There is also access to the old ver­sion of the web­site from 1999 to 2012.) There is also a pho­to archive which tells about the events in the life of the orga­ni­za­tion, and video page.

BAJ.by pro­vides also ser­vice infor­ma­tion for BAJ mem­bers: calls for pro­fes­sion­al con­tests and stud­ies, inter­ac­tive cal­en­dar of infor­ma­tion­al occa­sions, experts’ con­tact infor­ma­tion, elec­tron­ic direc­to­ry of address­es and phone num­bers of mass media, press-ser­vices etc.

Besides, BAJ.by is also a place for build­ing up infor­mal rela­tions and relax­ation which boosts clos­er know­ing of col­leagues. These are sec­tions “Jour­nal­ists tales”, “Jour­nal­ists slip-ups”, game “Guess the pet” etc.

Our val­ues:

- Objec­tiv­i­ty and accu­ra­cy: while prepar­ing some mate­r­i­al, we ver­i­fy infor­ma­tion, regard­less of the source it comes from; excep­tions are mate­ri­als copied from oth­er sources that the edi­tors think are trust­wor­thy.

- Bal­ance and impar­tial­i­ty: we try to show dif­fer­ent views at a prob­lem; when it is impos­si­ble to do at once, we pub­lish a dif­fer­ent view with­in rea­son­able time lim­its after the first pub­li­ca­tion is made.

- Inde­pen­dence: we do not allow dis­tor­tion of facts depend­ing on inter­ests of some per­son or a group of peo­ple.

- Respect towards indi­vid­u­als: we respect per­son­al life, ban deroga­to­ry expres­sions, defama­tion, incite­ment of hatred.

- Defend­ing infor­ma­tion sources: we pub­lish infor­ma­tion from con­fi­den­tial sources only when we are sure of them.

BAJ.by jour­nal­ists stick to the fol­low­ing prin­ci­ples in pub­lish­ing news online:

1. To cov­er events most ful­ly and impar­tial­ly and to reveal essen­tial fac­tors where pos­si­ble.

2. To avoid being influ­enced by the author­i­ties, politi­cians, busi­ness­men while report­ing news, and also avoid express­ing pref­er­ence for any of the sides. Assess­ment judg­ments are admis­si­ble only in quotes of some indi­vid­u­als or sources.

3. To avoid lan­guage of hatred and hos­tile treat­ment.

4. To respect sources of infor­ma­tion that have been sub­ject to stress, have been vic­tims of a crime or have fam­i­ly rela­tion to vic­tims of a crime.

5. To defend our sources of infor­ma­tion.

Web­site BAJ.by edi­tors’ board:

1. In news selec­tion, give pref­er­ence to the activ­i­ties of BAJ and events in the media field of Belarus.

2. Pay spe­cial atten­tion to mon­i­tor­ing of jour­nal­ists’ rights vio­la­tions and encroach­ment on free­dom of speech in Belarus.

3. Pay atten­tion to cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al and com­mu­nica­tive projects.

4. Val­ue respect from the web­site vis­i­tors and do not abuse their trust.

5. In con­flict sit­u­a­tions, give pos­si­bil­i­ty to express all kinds of views of the prob­lem in com­ments, on forums or in feed­back let­ters (WRITE TO EDITORS link).

6. Give pos­si­bil­i­ty to com­ment arti­cles with­out pre-mod­er­a­tion, but enjoy the right to edit or even delete the com­ments which con­tain straight­for­ward insult, defama­tion, obscene lan­guage, or incite enmi­ty, hatred, or bear dis­crim­i­na­to­ry char­ac­ter.

7. Edit mis­takes as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

8. While copy­ing mate­ri­als, always name the pri­ma­ry media source and pro­vide direct link.

9. Using oth­er authors’ texts does not mean that BAJ edi­tors share the same view­point with the author.

Con­di­tions of copy­right on the web­site BAJ.by

Any mate­r­i­al pub­lished on BAJ.by can be copied and pub­lished on any oth­er web­site or in any oth­er mass media, pro­vid­ed that the infor­ma­tion about the authors, sources and links to BAJ.by web­site are indi­cat­ed.