Rostra Editorial Policy and Participant Guidelines

All contributors and citizen journalists at San Diego Rostra are independent writers. All San Diego Rostra writers are required to follow our policy in order to have blogging privileges on the site. Outside of this policy and beyond established laws governing libel, defamation, copyright and plagiarism, the content of each writers blog posts is the sole responsibility of each writer and is not necessarily the opinion of San Diego Rostra as a whole. San Diego Rostra does not control what the bloggers write; blog posts are not edited by administrators other than for profanity, legal and occasional privacy issues. General Provisions 1. Current and prospective bloggers who want to have an established column under their name must post a minimum of once per month. 2. San Diego Rostra will gladly provide access to elected officials, political groups and associations, advocacy and activist groups to post a news release. Posts are limited to one post per individual or organization per week. Each news release post MUST be accompanied by additional value added reporting, comment, or opinion unique to San Diego Rostra. 3. Site administrators will remove posts of news releases in excess of this limit. 4. Any individual is invited to post via the Guest Columnist option. The posted is required to identify him or herself when doing so.

Governing Editorial and Legal Policy for Column Writers

1. Libel Libel requires three things: A published (1) untruth (2) that causes harm (3). The simple definition of an item being considered published is if a third person reads it. By posting on San Diego Rostra, you are publishing. A final determination of harm is up to the legal system, but San Diego Rostra would prefer to prevent libel from being committed in the first place under our name. If the person who claims harm is a public figure (including elected officials, celebrities, members of the news media), he or she must show the published falsehood was purposefully published or published with a reckless disregard for the truth. The key to avoiding libel is to source your facts through documentation or by quoting a third party. Make a good faith effort to determine the truth. If you are offering personal opinion, you are not necessarily protected from libel claims. Opinions are based on facts and opinions can cause harm. Rendering

opinion about individuals not considered public figures in the eyes of the law gets you into the danger zone. San Diego Rostra urges our writers to play fair and disagree without name-calling or invective. 2. Copyright San Diego Rostra claims copyright on ALL material posted to our website. We expect our writers and our website to receive fair credit and full attribution for material posted on our blogsite by others. ALL Rostra columnists must extend this expectation as a matter of courtesy and fairness and as a matter of law. Do not use copyrighted material without permission of the owner. If you dont know if its copyrighted, dont use it. Fair use provisions allow for use of some copyrighted material, but you MUST always cite the original source. Limit your use to a synopsis and limited quotes, and link to the original source whenever possible. Copyright extends to photos, artwork, and other visual elements. Simply because something is posted on line does NOT make it fair game for you to use it. You can use free stock photography, Wiki photos, and your own photos without securing permission. If photos, artwork and logos are provided as part of an online newsroom for download, please follow the source's instruction for crediting the material if requested. If a news organization, website, or blog posts visual material you wish to use, you MUST contact the organization and secure permission prior to posting on Rostra. Whenever possible, please provide source credit in a photo caption or in the body of your post. If in doubt don't use the material. Which leads us to the next section. 3. Plagiarism Do not pass off someone elses breaking news, original thought or specific words as your own. EVER. See the section on copyright and when in doubt, provide the original source information. Attribute, attribute, attribute. This applies to photos, video, and other visual elements. Do not post a photo and pass it off as your own if you didnt shoot it; the same goes for graphic art. Please provide credit to the original source, especially if requested. Posting links to video on another website is generally acceptable. 4. Seven dirty words San Diego Rostra assumes its readers to be legal adults, but our website is a public site available to all including minors. Please do not use profane, vulgar or obscene language or images. Skilled writers do not have any need to do so. If you

are quoting other source material or publishing images that could fall into the profane or obscene category by a reasonable community standard, please use asterisks when quoting, or provide an outside link to the source material when possible. 5. Transparency and conflicts of interest Many of San Diego Rostras writers have direct involvement in the issues they write about. It permits this website to provide breaking news and opinions based on firsthand knowledge. However, writers on San Diego Rostra must strive at all times to be open and transparent to preserve individual credibility and thereby the credibility of San Diego Rostra. Rostra bloggers must self-disclose to the readers any real or perceived conflicts of interest the writer may have in connection with a blog post. Examples: A blogger working as a political candidates campaign manager is free to blog about the candidate and the campaign race on San Diego Rostra as long as he or she discloses his or her role in the campaign every time. A blogger writing about the activities of an advocacy group who is receiving payment from that group for services not connected to Rostra should declare this fiscal relationship. A blogger promoting an event in which he or she has any financial interest should declare such in the post. If a blogger is being paid to post information to San Diego Rostra, this relationship MUST be disclosed. No exceptions. Failure to disclose will result in removal of the post and suspension of blogging privileges on the website. It is not necessary for San Diego Rostra bloggers to declare campaign contributions or voting records. When in doubt about any potential conflict, San Diego Rostra encouragers bloggers to err on the side of transparency and too much disclosure rather than too little. Disclosures should be made at the end of the post and in a bold font so they are easy for readers to find. 6. Never allow anyone to blog under your name or allow anyone to use your user name and password. 7. Do not overtly sell services or products. If you own or work for a for-profit business, or run or work for a nonprofit, do not use San Diego Rostra merely to sell your services or products. But we do want you to use your expertise and knowledge to inform our readers. If you have expertise in political surveys or consulting, law, public relations, land use, education, and so forth, it is in the best interests of San Diego Rostra and in

establishing your own bona fides to briefly identify and describe your credentials. 8. No harassment, no illegal activity, no promotion of illegal activity. If you arent sure what this is, err on the side of caution and dont write it. Site administrators reserve the right to edit or remove anything that falls in this category. 9. You must identify yourself in your blog. No nom de plumes or sobriquets. Readers want to know who wrote what they are reading and evaluate that writers bona fides. Limited exceptions are provided in the section below. Bloggers are strongly encouraged to use a profile photo or business related avatar and include a link to your personal or professional web site or LinkedIn account. You may also provide links to other social media accounts. Violation of any of these rules could result in your blog being deactivated and/or deleted from San Diego Rostra and your blogging privileges revoked. Determinations of violation and revocation of blogging privileges are at the discretion of San Diego Rostra site administrators. These blogging rules may be changed at any time without prior notice. You will be notified of any change and given an opportunity to determine whether you wish to continue posting under the new rules, or cease posting.

San Diego Rostras policy on anonymous posts

Contributors San Diego Rostra would prefer that contributors use their real names when submitting content for publication. However, we recognize that this is not always possible. Workplace regulations, concerns about professional, political or personal retaliation and other factors may dictate that a writer remains anonymous. We will grandfather in any columnists writing under a pseudonym as of January 1, 2012. However, we encourage those columnists to consider writing under their own name. From this date forward, anyone who wants to write for San Diego Rostra on a regular basis MUST write under his or her real name. Anyone who wants to remain anonymous can submit columns to San Diego Rostra site administrators on an individual basis under the Guest Columnist option. Site administrators will consider whether or not the column will be published anonymously on a case-by-case basis.

San Diego Rostra requires writers who wish to remain anonymous to provide their names and contact information to site administrators. This information will be kept strictly confidential. Commenters At this time San Diego Rostra will continue to allow anonymous comments. As a rule we believe comments have more impact and carry more weight if the writer self-identifies and is willing to stand behind his or her remarks publicly, and we will make this opinion known to our readers. However, we reserve the right of commenters who do not otherwise abuse the privilege to choose anonymity. If any anonymous commenter posts potentially libelous or defamatory content, uses profanity, engages in personal attacks, posts a blatantly commercial or profit-making message, or insists on repeatedly hurling insults or invective beyond which a reasonable person would consider fair game, San Diego Rostra administrators reserve the right to remove the post and invoke a three strikes policy. Once a commenter has received his or her third warning from site administrators about violating these standards under the cloak of anonymity, only comments signed publicly with the writers name will be permitted from the third warning forward. Among the goals of San Diego Rostra is facilitating open discussion of public issues. We encourage comments and we prefer that individual bloggers permit comments on their posts. Each individual blogger has the right to close comments on their posts, whether at the time of posting, or if the blogger believes the debate has taken its course. However, San Diego Rostra discourages bloggers from closing comments except in limited circumstances. If you write for San Diego Rostra, expect your opinion and your point of view to draw questions and opposing viewpoints. Simply because the comments are not going the way the blogger would like does not justify closing comments. While San Diego Rostras bloggers should cultivate a thick skin, no one needs to tolerate abuse or threats. We encourage bloggers to report abuse or threats to the site administrators, and if warranted to law enforcement. San Diego Rostra administrators retain the right to close comments on a column if we determine that libel, defamation, or threats warrant doing so. Violation of any of these rules could result in your blog being deactivated and/or deleted from San Diego Rostra and your blogging privileges revoked.

The decision whether to suspect any individuals writing privileges whether a blogger or commenter is solely at the discretion of San Diego Rostras administrators. These blogging rules may be changed at any time without prior notice. Column writers will be notified of any change and given an opportunity to opt out. Questions about this policy may be sent to info@sdrostra.com

San Diego Rostra Administrators Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, APR Erica Holloway Barry Jantz Tony Manolatos