Editorial policies

Editorial Policies

Editorial Independence Policy

The Emancipator is more than just a news site — it is a groundbreaking platform redefining the way we confront racism and inequality in America and abroad. As the nation’s only nonprofit newsroom singularly focused on this critical issue, The Emancipator helps people understand how racism impacts us all and what can be done about it.

Our goal is to help shift our industry toward more comprehensive, nuanced, and intellectually honest coverage of race and racism. We at The Emancipator hope that these efforts, in accordance with standards of independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), will help other journalists who aim to join us in this work.

As a nonprofit newsroom exploring solutions to racial inequity, we welcome the opportunity to share our stories with the widest possible audience. We invite newsrooms to republish our stories for free in accordance with the terms of the license and these guidelines. We republish the work of other news organizations aligned with our editorial mission and will clearly label this and link back to the publication. These pieces will not be available for republishing via our widget.

Donor Transparency

We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization. Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news and content coverage decisions and sources of all revenue.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from mission-aligned individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

The Emancipator may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but donors cannot dictate or influence the editorial direction of the news organization. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content. If a donor pitches a story idea, and that idea follows our standard editorial pitch process and is accepted, we will disclose the relationship with the writer.

We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates as a public trust, we do not pay certain taxes.

Corrections Policy

We are committed to transparency and to providing our readers with truthful, accurate and up-to-date news and information. If we make a mistake, we do our best to correct it as quickly as possible within the story and detailing the error at the end of the piece. If you spot a factual error, please let us know at info@theemancipator.org.

Community Guidelines

The Emancipator is a magazine about race and racism. We work to explain and explore remedies for structural and intersectional inequities, as well as to illuminate how they affect people’s lives on a daily basis. Though we are housed within the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, we are proudly editorially independent. We provide our publication without a paywall to ensure that our reporting and other content is accessible to all.

We welcome constructive, intellectually honest disagreement and debate. Essentially, we want everyone to feel welcome on our site and wherever else we exist — whether as a contributor, at one of our events, or as a commenter on our social media platforms.

As such, we have a few requests.

To help ensure The Emancipator remains a safe and constructive platform for our community to grow, we expect all members of our community to observe the following guidelines when engaging on our website, at our events, and with our newsletters, social channels, or other platforms.

We ask that you:

Stick to the facts. Our journalistic standards demand that we adhere to the facts. We ask that you do the same, citing sources and specific experiences when applicable.

Further the conversation. We want to spur conversations that help us find solutions and remain open to new insights and perspectives.

Be curious. We welcome questions that seek to illuminate and deepen discourse.

Prioritize empathy and compassion. To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., we must disagree without being violently disagreeable. Speech can, in fact, be violent. Please exercise that freedom while being mindful of others and their experiences.

We commit to:

Mutual respect.

Accountability, for ourselves and others.

Inclusivity.

Transparency.

Participation and responsiveness.

We will not tolerate:

Willful posting or sharing of misinformation or disinformation.

Doxxing or the publication of any personal or contact information about any other individual or group without their express permission.

Spamming our platforms, including solicitations, self-promotions, or advertisements of any kind.

To report violations of these guidelines, please contact info@theemancipator.org.

Note: If found in violation of any of these guidelines, The Emancipator reserves the right to remove or block users of our website, newsletters, events, social channels or any other Emancipator platforms.

Code of Ethics

The Emancipator believes that all employees, including our journalists and support staff, must uphold and follow guidelines outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists on all platforms. The SPJ outlines the following four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media:

Seek Truth and Report It

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

Minimize Harm

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Act Independently

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.

Be Accountable and Transparent

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.

Conflicts of Interest

Journalist Recusal: Journalists must recuse themselves from reporting on any topic where they have a personal or financial interest. This includes financial stakes in companies being investigated, as well as close or familial ties to key figures involved in the story.

Gifts & Compensation: The Emancipator staff are prohibited from accepting gifts, compensation, or any form of financial benefit from parties involved in or affected by their stories.

Family & Close Relationships: Any conflict of interest that might arise from personal relationships, such as a family member working for a company that could be the subject of a story, must be disclosed. The journalist may be reassigned or recuse themselves from covering that story.

Political Neutrality: Journalists are expected to refrain from engaging in political activity that could compromise their objectivity, such as donating to political candidates or political parties.

While we do accept funding from philanthropic sources, donors have no influence over content, ensuring transparency and accountability in our reporting.

Collaborative Journalism

Our news organization is committed to editorial independence and transparency in all of our reporting. As such, any collaboration with external partners must align with our mission and uphold our commitment to editorial excellence.

We approach editorial collaborations with the following guidelines in mind:

All collaborations must be disclosed to our readers, including the names of any partners and the nature of the collaboration. This disclosure will be made in a prominent location, such as the top of the story or on a dedicated page on our website, and will be clearly labeled as a collaboration. Any financial support for a collaboration will also be disclosed.

Our editorial staff maintains full control over the content produced by our outlet as part of the collaboration. This includes maintaining control over the reporting, writing, editing, and fact-checking of all content produced as part of the collaboration. If there is disagreement on the final versions of stories, any participant has the right to not publish a story that has been created from a collaboration.

We will not enter into collaborations that compromise our ethical, content, and reporting standards or that would give the appearance of a conflict of interest. This includes collaborations with partners that have a financial interest in the outcome of the story or that have a history of attempting to influence our reporting.

In addition to these guidelines, we also have the following proactive measures in place to ensure the integrity of our collaborations:

We will establish clear guidelines and expectations with partners before entering into a collaboration, and pursue only those projects that advance our editorial mission. This includes discussing and agreeing upon the goals and objectives of the collaboration, as well as the roles and responsibilities of each party. Collaboration partners will be expected to fact-check their own pieces and to adhere to the highest journalistic standards for accuracy and fairness.

We will review the work produced as part of the collaboration before it is published to ensure that it aligns with our standards and practices.

We will have an open line of communication with partners throughout the collaboration to address any issues or concerns that may arise.

By adhering to these guidelines, we ensure that our collaborations enhance our reporting and serve the public interest.