Editorial Policy

Mayapur Voice, a first of its kind media cum blog service in Sri Mayapur, strives to uphold the highest principles of ethical journalism, ethical reporting, and ethical thought process steered towards social integrity and upliftment of humankind, while bringing the most useful and relevant news, analysis and stories to our audience.

Acknowledging that the current world unrest is due to atheism, which leads to degradation of human values and Godlessness, our service, which is voluntary and non-commercial in nature, is primarily dedicated to spreading the unique and transcendental message of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as taught by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Our updated editorial policy is outlined below.

What we publish and do not publish:

• We publish articles, news, videos, pictures, events, debates and surveys, referred to here as “stories” or “posts”, on any topic listed in the Categories list. New categories may be added.
• We publish stories from all avenues so far we find the content beneficial to the mass.
• We publish Sri Mayapur city’s local news and events. For example, we may publish a story on an event in a nearby school,  hospital, temple, or a playground.
• We are committed to respecting copyright laws and honoring intellectual properties. When we quote or curate from news-feeds and publicly available content on the net, we strive to ensure the source is given appropriate credit. In case of any lapse, we intend to immediately correct it.
• We don’t publish offensive content. We don’t allow character assassination, direct or indirect.
• We don’t consider every criticism offensive so far the content is based on facts, it is presented with proper etiquette and the intention behind quoting such facts is to help people.
• Mayapur Voice is not a place to vent personal anger towards others. However, stories expressing concern over injustice, scandals, and such other unethical practices may be published after fact-checking.
• To safeguard public interest and sanctity of the cause, we do not encourage promotions of tainted characters.
• An editorial published by Mayapur Voice shall adhere to guidelines for impartiality, accuracy, and integrity as addressed in this editorial policy.
• We are purely apolitical and have no affiliation with any political party. However, we do not discourage well-intended analysis of political events in public interest.
• The editor reserves the right to determine whether material submitted for publication shall be posted and reserves the right to edit it as needed. The reason for editing could be for space, structural adjustment, removing libelous remarks, correcting potentially misleading or misinterpretable terms or statements, and discouraging personal unwarranted attacks.
• All material submitted must be signed. Name may be withheld on request.
• Opinions published by Mayapur Voice are those of the individual writers and not necessarily those of the editor or the executive board.
• We accept His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhuapda as our ultimate authority and hold his views as absolute.

Guidelines for writing for Mayapur Voice:

• Anyone can submit a story.
• Emphasize on writing your own content. You may quote other sources but do not copy-paste material from other sources without linking to the source.
• If your story is longer than a couple of pages, use sub-headings and consider including value-added elements like images, charts or short video clips.
• Have a hook that will inspire the readers to read through.
• Be relevant. Be timely.
• Humors allowed. Insult not allowed.
• Present information in an original manner.
• Multiple messages should go under separate headings.
• Content should be able to live on its own.  If you are separating a long article into multiple headings, consider that a reader might land on a specific page / heading while searching the net. Make it easy for that reader to know that there are more pages.
• Think if you want to appear light-hearted, practical, serious, academic, jocular, clever, supportive, challenging, or friendly.
• If you are writing an informative article, prefer writing in the third person point of view, not first or second.
• If you are writing on an incident that you feel was not properly handled / justified, try to include suggestions as to what you would do under such circumstances if you were to be the judge.
• Use clear and straightforward English. It takes less brainpower to read simple language and most readers appreciate it.
• Leave a single space between sentences.
• Make every effort to assure that news / story content is accurate, free from bias and in context, and that all sides are presented fairly.
• You may include charts, graphs, diagrams, photographs, illustrations, cartoons, videos, etc.

Using Quotations and References:

Readers should be able to assume that every word between quotation marks is what the speaker or writer said. If the subject’s grammar is unsuitable, quotation marks should be removed and the awkward passage paraphrased. Mayapur Voice will correct spelling, capitalization and grammatical errors within a quotation wherever found necessary.

Fact-checking:

Authors submitting stories to Mayapur Voice are accountable in the first instance for their own accuracy and fact-checking. In case of errors, Mayapur Voice will either not publish the story, make necessary changes on its own, or contact the author for doing the same, depending on the nature and seriousness of such errors. Significant and known errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, will be corrected without contacting the author.

Corrections:

Mayapur Voice recognizes its ethical responsibility to correct all factual errors, large or small, brought to its attention.

In the case of publishing stories based on documents, files, newspaper clippings, etc., Mayapur Voice may not edit any error in the said documents, files, newspaper clippings, etc.. Instead, Mayapur Voice may add its own comments referring to such errors.

Proposed Administrative Structure:*

Managing editor

Editorial board

Writers

Proofreader

• While we have number of authors writing for Mayapur Voice, in absence of suitable volunteers, at the moment the other responsibilities are taken care of by Bhadra Balaram das.

Contact Information:

For questions or inquiries, feel free to contact us at mail@mayapurvoice.com

Hare Krishna