CHEK News Ethics, Standards and Corrections Policy

CHEK News is Vancouver Island’s homegrown news service and North America’s only employee-owned television station.

Objective

With reporters stationed around Vancouver Island, we aim to provide our audience with accurate, informative news reports that broaden their understanding of issues of public interest, both in the region and beyond.

Ethics

As an employee-owned station, CHEK News is free of political and commercial influence and is committed to reporting on issues in the public interest in a fair, accurate and transparent manner.

CHEK News adheres to the Code of Journalistic Ethics set forth by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) which emphasizes accuracy, fairness, independence, integrity and respect. CHEK also adheres to standards set out by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, including the Journalistic Independence Code, the Violence on Television Code, and the Equitable Portrayal Code. CHEK is a voluntary member of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which independently adjudicates any complaints from the public about programs broadcast on CHEK.

CHEK News Journalists do not accept gifts in order to avoid any matters of conflict of interest, and advertisers do not have any influence on the direction of news stories.

As a publisher of third-party opinion pieces, CHEK News will clearly label such pieces “Opinion” and ensure they do not misrepresent any other points of view. To maintain impartiality, CHEK News journalists and staff do not contribute opinion pieces to our website.

Corrections

CHEK News strives to avoid errors both on-air and online, but when significant factual errors do occur, we are committed to correcting them in a transparent, fair and prompt manner.

Corrections will either be read on-air or clearly noted in an online story, explaining what the error was and how it has been corrected.

In cases where a news story has evolved over time, the information presented in a particular story on-air or online may still considered accurate at the time of its publication or broadcast, and may warrant an update or clarification.

In regards to requests to remove online stories by those who are linked to or affected by them, CHEK News generally does not agree to remove published material as it is a matter of public record and doing so could undermine public trust. In most cases, inaccuracies can be corrected or a story can be updated to address such requests. The News Director will consider requests for story deletion in exceptional cases where there may be legal or personal safety ramifications to the person involved.

All articles on cheknews.ca include a link to report typos and grammatical, as well as factual, errors.

Diversity

CHEK also aims to reflect diversity by recognizing that past and present social injustices, blatant prejudice and unconscious bias still exist within our nation, and embrace the rich perspectives and experiences that arise from racial, ethnic, socio-economic, sexual, gender, differently abled and religious diversity within our community.

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