Editorial Policy
Village Voice Brisbane Editorial Policy
Village Voice Brisbane (published by entity Local News Publisher Pty Ltd) commits to the continued observance of the Charter of Editorial Independence in relation to its mastheads Village Voice Peninsula, Village Voice Inner North, and Village Voice Brisbane Online.
The Charter provides:
That Village Voice Brisbane publicly declares a commitment to the fundamental and longstanding principle of editorial independence.
That Village Voice Brisbane acknowledges that journalists, artists and photographers must record the affairs of the city, state, nation and the world fairly, fully and regardless of any commercial, political or personal interests, including those of any proprietors, shareholders or board members.
That editorial staff shall not be required to work other than in accordance with the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance journalist code of ethics, the Local & Independent News Association editorial standards, and in line with rulings of the Australian Press Council.
That full editorial control of the mastheads, within a negotiated, fixed budget, be vested with the editors of the mastheads and that the editors alone shall determine the editorial content of the mastheads.
That the editors alone shall hire, fire and deploy editorial staff.
That the editors must at all times carry out their duties in a way that preserves the independence and integrity of the mastheads.
Local & Independent News Association
Village Voice Brisbane is a member of the Local & Independent News Association and as such bound by their editorial standards.
For further information, see www.lina.org.au/about/editorial-standards.
The Australian Press Council
Village Voice Brisbane is bound by the Standards of Practice of the Australian Press Council. If you believe the standards may have been breached, you can contact Village Voice Brisbane directly or approach the Council by emailing [email protected] or calling 02 9261 1930 or 1800 025 712.
For further information, see www.presscouncil.org.au.
Village Voice Brisbane AI Guidelines
Village Voice Brisbane (published by entity Local News Publisher Pty Ltd) commits itself to the principle that core journalistic values will not come at the expense of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. As a general principle, there must always be a human between any AI tool and our audience.
We have developed these guidelines for the secure and ethical use of AI technologies and AI-generated output (e.g. data, images, text) in relation to the creation and publication of content across our newsrooms. This applies to both generative AI (technology that “creates”) and assistive AI (technology that “suggests” or supports the completion of tasks) that offer many opportunities to enhance our journalism.
They will be updated from time to time to ensure they are current, accurate and meet the evolving needs of our audiences and mastheads.
Guidelines
Use by editorial employees
AI will not be used to write stories for publication.
Journalists and editorial employees are allowed to use AI tools where there is a genuine benefit in doing so. This may include using assistive AI to do initial research, prompt ideas, analyse data, suggest headlines or key point summaries.
Human scrutiny of results
Where AI tools are used for a task, the results must be critically scrutinised, verified and checked by a human before being used in any way towards the creation of content. We use multiple, reputable sources to confirm facts and never rely solely on AI.
Imagery
AI will not be used to generate photo-realistic images or illustrations for publication, except in cases where the AI-generated nature of the image is the point of the story. With editor approval, AI may be used in the creation of certain graphics.
Transparency
In the rare cases where AI-generated material is published (text or imagery), with the approval of the editor, it will be clearly labelled as such for the benefit of readers. The use of assistive AI does not require declaration.
Confidentiality
Private, confidential or sensitive information will not be fed into a third-party AI platform, including into unpublished stories. However, unpublished stories may be fed into internal, closed AI environments to assist with the creation of headlines and write-offs.