Policies
Editorial Policy
The Gazette is a daily, student-funded, student-run newspaper published by University Students’ Council of the University of Western Ontario (“USC”) at The University of Western Ontario. The paper is published four days per week (Tuesdays through Fridays) during the academic year, and an additional four times during the non-academic year.
The Gazette‘s core potential readership consists of approximately 32,000 students at Western. It serves the student readership by reporting the news, entertaining readers, and promoting debate on issues involving the Western community and the City of London.
Code of Ethics
The Gazette is a daily, student-funded, student-operated newspaper at The University of Western Ontario. It serves the student readership by reporting the news, entertaining readers, and promoting debate on issues involving the Western community and the City of London.
Letters Policy
Letters submitted to The Gazette are judged by a number of criteria, including the timeliness of the letter, the originality of arguments presented in your letter and how long an issue has persisted in the newspaper.
In addition to these guidelines, all letters must include the contributor’s name and identification (ie. History II, Dean of Arts). Letters judged by the Editor-in-Chief to be libellous or derogatory will not be published. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters and submissions and makes no guarantees that a letter will be published.
By submitting a letter to The Gazette for publication, you grant to The Gazette a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to publish such material in perpetuity in any media, including but not limited to, The Gazette’s hard copy and online archives.
Thank you very much once again for taking the time to write to us, and if you have any comments or concerns, please email the editor-in-chief at editor@westerngazette.ca.
Complaints Procedure
Recalling The Gazette‘s commitment to responsible, accurate, timely, honest and objective reporting, The Gazette is accountable for dealing with mistakes, concerns and complaints, with the goal of upholding our integrity and observing our mandate.
Advisory Board Terms of Reference
The Advisory Board reviews complaints about the editorial content of the paper in light of The Gazette‘s Code of Ethics and Editorial Policy. The Advisory Board will act as the designated body ensuring compliance with the Editorial Policy.
The Gazette Study Group
The ad hoc Gazette Study Group was created in response to the concerns raised from last year’s Spoof Issue of The Gazette. It released its official recommendations report April 1.
Its purpose was to publish a report of non-binding recommendations that will be given to the Editor-in-Chief of The Gazette and the President of the University Students’ Council with the goal of improving the operations and content of The Gazette.
The Study Group had seven members:
- (i) The University Students’ Council President Tom Stevenson, ex-officio;
- (ii) the Editor-in-Chief of The Gazette Allison Buchan-Terrell, ex-officio;
- (iii) a media professional, who is not a member of The Gazette Mark Kearney;
- (iv) a member of the Journalism Faculty Paul Benedetti;
- (v) three (3) students of the university, who are not members, appointed by the President, Kabir Chauhan, Aisha Omar and Stuart Thompson.
Since September 2007, the group has met on a monthly basis to gather information from students through various survey methods and discuss the overall quality and operations of The Gazette, the role and functions of the Advisory Board, adherence to and provisions of the Editorial Policy and the Code of Ethics, and the publishing of special issues.
Comment Policy
The Gazette encourages comments on its stories. The Commenting Policy is intended to ensure such comments are appropriate and respectful.
Comments are monitored by the Gazette and its web editors. Comments are published as submitted without moderation. Comments may be deleted if they contain excessive profanity, promote hate of any kind, harass or intimidate other commenters, are posted more than once, use misleading or offensive names, are potentially libelous, contain commercial content, are promotional in nature, or violate the Gazette’s Code of Ethics or Letters Policy. Comments should always be relevant to the article and discussion and may be deleted if they do not offer a meaningful contribution. The Gazette may close comments on its stories if the discussion becomes unproductive, irrelevant or incendiary.
Comments on the website — like any content published by the Gazette — are the Gazette‘s property and may be published in the paper edition. The Gazette may release commenter information to police if required by law.
If you have any comments or concerns, feel free to e-mail Editor-in-Chief Stuart A. Thompson at editor@westerngazette.ca.
Unpublishing Policy
Stories published by the Gazette are archived online. This archive in intended to mimic the function of print archives, which are used as a historical artifact and public record of accurate information. Since content in the archive is often searchable, readers or sources sometimes ask that content be removed from the archive or altered. This policy is intended to explain the function of the online archive and appropriate reasons for removing or altering content.
As a newspaper, the Gazette is in the business of publishing and generally avoids unpublishing content. The archive is a historical record and the Gazette never acts in a way that alters the accuracy and completeness of that record. Since information published in the Gazette is vetted by editors and reporters, situations rarely arise when altering content is warranted or justified.
Among cases that do not qualify are letters, quotes from sources, or other information in published articles, editorials or columns that is accurate or cannot be proved inaccurate. If the information was reported accurately and gathered fairly, it is part of the public record and will not be altered.
In some cases, articles may deserve an amendment or clarification if details related to the story have since changed. Such examples are usually related to legal matters where information concerning the outcome of the matter was released after the article was published. Altering such stories is intended to improve clarity and add context.
In most cases, content fit for unpublishing or alterations must be verifiably inaccurate, potentially libellous, in contravention of a publication ban, or other legal considerations.
In all cases, editors will note that an article has been altered or removed.
Any questions about this or other policies can be directed to the editor-in-chief at editor@westerngazette.ca.
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