Ethics Policy

ETHICS POLICY

EssentiallySports is dedicated to furnishing content of the highest standard in the sports journalism ecosystem. EssentiallySports prides itself in news coverage free from bias, political affiliation, and misinformation. EssentiallySports strives to achieve the standards set henceforth in both its commercial and journalistic pursuits.

EssentiallySports ensures that it keeps updating its policies to keep up with the pace of the ever-changing online media landscape. When creating this policy document, the organization takes into account the constructive discourse from key stakeholders and also the updates, if any, in the legal framework.

Code of Ethics:

These guidelines apply to all members of EssentiallySports whose work directly affects the website content. They include writers and editors.

• EssentiallySports writers and editors shall maintain the neutrality of tone in matters of politics and government, and adhere to stringent internal standards. 
• At EssentiallySports, we are highly particular about our content standards. We do not promote or support hate speech or violence. Therefore, EssentiallySports expects its writers and editors to censor curse words or tone down violent action or speech, where appropriate. 
• At EssentiallySports our writers and editors are to follow the Editorial Booklet presented to them at the beginning of their tenure. This includes practising fact-checking, citing the exact quote, integrity of photographs, and avoiding anonymous sourcing unless warranted in special circumstances.

Other Behavioural Conduct that applies to all members of the EssentiallySports: 

• At EssentiallySports we have a strict confidentiality policy. Our employees are not to disclose or exploit any confidential information acquired at work. 
• EssentiallySports has worked relentlessly to build its credibility and reputation as a sports news reporting website. Our employees must not do anything that will damage the reputation of EssentiallySports. 
• Employee safety is of utmost importance to us. We also observe and uphold the company’s policies against harassment, even in the digital hemisphere.

EssentiallySports believes all differences in views find common ground on an amicable discussion, almost without exception. Nevertheless, EssentiallySports strictly views any deliberate violation of these guidelines as a serious offence and shall lead to disciplinary action. 

EssentiallySports reserves the right to modify and expand the guidelines from time to time, as appropriate.

Pursuing the News (Conflict of Interest):

All the necessary measures are taken to ensure no conflict of interest arises as a result of any breach of ethical values. We make it a case that our writers, editors, or the head of departments agree to the prerequisite that they can not accept payment from any organization/entity that they cover in articles. We do not associate ourselves in any form of paid/branded content where we receive any monetary backing. 

Through our product offering, we do not intend to undermine the credibility of any entity and certainly do not wish to defame anyone. We are adamant about covering the news content in a pure reporting tone and not indulging in make-believe false publishing.

Our interviews shall not be tailored to suppress the opinion of any entity, but as an organization, we keep no aim to benefit from a negative controversy.

Protecting the Neutrality:

EssentiallySports acknowledges the importance of neutral reporting in the media hemisphere. To ensure this, we have stringent rules in place, where our publishing goes through stringent editorial review. 

We respect the interests of our readers/viewers and adhere to the values around not furnishing biased content. It is part of our core ethics that we never speak ill about any individual/entity on the basis of their nationality, colour, religion, sex, political inclination etc.

We admittedly do cover opinionated pieces on our platform, but none with an aim to distort facts or claim things outlandish in nature, that can demean anyone.

Advertising:

Currently, we do not have sponsored/branded articles on our platform. Through our content, we do not aim to directly promote any product, brand or business. When we do indulge in sponsored posts/articles, we shall mark/stipulate/create a section for the sponsored/paid nature of such content.  

With the banner ads on our website to drive our basic commercial interests, we do not intend to affect the decision of consumers in any form. 

Copyright:

As a rapidly growing media organization, EssentiallySports covers an extensive amount of articles spread across many different sporting individuals/entities. Our articles make use of various types of images and audio-visual content. At all times, we strive to uphold the Intellectual Property rights held by others and shall appropriately use the fair-use exception granted to us in the Editorial hemisphere. 

We are very strict on checking plagiarism and enforcing a thumb rule of no copying of others’ content. Our editorial team makes use of industry-leading plagiarism tools and runs every draft through the tools to ensure that there exists no plagiarised content.

When covering an interview, it becomes our duty to give due credit to the source of information. In no condition, do we release a quote or statistical information or a claim without citation to an authentic and verified source.