CareOurEarth.com (“CareOurEarth”, “We”) is a blog and news website with a dedication to promoting environmental sustainability and human health at global and regional levels. We are intended to publish observational, empirical, and scientific news, analyses, and opinions using journalism’s best practices. We are committed to news reporting and journalism that is trusted, fact-based, informed, insightful, useful, and transparent. Our journalism will encourage and engage in debate on or commitment to a range of issues of public interest.
Our values
CareOurEarth strives to be worthy of our readers’ trust. We take our readers’ trust very seriously in everything we do. We will always follow the code of editorial ethics and the highest standards of journalism free of bias, partisanship, and discrimination. Our editor pledges to adhere to the principles of press freedom, integrity, balance, and fairness in all news gathering and presentation. We will do our best to make our news or content to be probing, critical, honest, courageous, constructive, and forthright.
Our editorial process
CareOurEarth publishes various content from both our writing staff and guest authors. For our writing staff’s blogs and reports, we will endeavor to explore all serious angles of an issue and to seek a range of analyses to reflect the diversity of informed perspectives. For guest authors’ contributions, our editor will make an effort to source quality, diverse, and fact-based journalism providing a range of informed perspectives from different professionals.
All guest author submissions, including headlines, text, pictures, and captions, will go through a considered review and editorial process before they are accepted for publication. Our editor aims to discern the truth, verify their accuracy, and check their writing objectively without conflicts of interest. However, we accept no liability in respect of any material submitted by users and published by us, and we are not responsible for its content and accuracy. The views expressed in the articles accepted for publication are the personal opinions of the authors named. They may not represent the views of CareOurEarth.
Our editorial principles
- Independence
CareOurEarth is committed to serving the public and operating with editorial freedom, integrity, and independence. We always support independent thinking and reporting. Our editorial decisions will be made on merit only, and our editor has the final right to determine content for publication.
2. Accuracy
CareOurEarth is dedicated to reporting fairly, accurately, and without bias on matters of public interest. We will conduct a rigorous fact-checking process for all our output. Any doubts or issues concerning accuracy will be double-checked before publication. Whenever it is recognized that an inaccurate, misleading, or distorted report has been published, we will take steps to correct the error(s) promptly.
3. Attribution and sourcing
We usually provide attribution to original authors or data sources, with a reference or a link to the source of our information. Fair use of other work as a source of ideas or stylistic inspiration will be acknowledged. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Words directly quoted from a source other than the writer’s own reporting will be attributed and will not be edited except to omit offensive language if appropriate.
4. Transparency
We believe readers have the right to know who is speaking or reporting. Generally, anonymous articles will not appear on our website, except for posts related to a public event or facts edited by our editorial staff. For posts involving any sponsor, investor, or business partner, we will disclose the relationship either before or after the content.
5. No discrimination and offence
We always support freedom of expression but take the utmost care to avoid causing unjustified offense and unnecessary distress. Our reports may address environmental issues in diverse communities or nations but will not spread, incite, promote, or justify hatred. Any hate speech will not be tolerated. We also take the utmost consideration of cultural sensitivities and avoid prejudicial or pejorative references to gratuitously offensive information such as race, ethnicity, religion, and/or political orientation.
6. Declaration of conflict of interest
To inform our readers about the existence of any conflict, our authors are expected to disclose any affiliation or funding that is relevant to the subject about which they are writing and reporting. The declaration of any interest conflict will appear together with the article or post. The conflicts may include the receipt of funding, political affiliations, and financial interest. In addition, we practice a policy of zero-tolerance of corrupt practices (e.g., bribery) that may compromise the integrity of journalism.
7. Protection of privacy
We fully respect privacy and privacy laws. We always err on the side of caution and compassion. Intrusion and inquiries into an individual’s private life without consent are not acceptable unless the public interest is indisputably involved. CareOurEarth will never give out email addresses or other contact details for any of our authors. If we are approached for such details, we will contact the authors. The expectation of privacy will only be waived in the event where privacy is outweighed by the public’s right to know or legal requirements.
8. Adherence to legal/judicial requirements
CareOurEarth will make every attempt to comply with laws and, as a matter of caution, avoid unfair and unwarranted criticism. This includes and is not limited to the laws around plagiarism, privacy, contempt of court, the use of confidential information, and defamation. Given that articles published on our website are globally available, any legal concerns and ramifications will be considered in that context.
9. Use of photographs and videos
CareOurEarth will always apply caution in the use of pictures and videos. Publication or distribution of unlicensed photographs and videos is not allowed. Generally, there should be no identification of a person or persons in a photograph unless their identity is certain. Anyone who believes a photograph has been used inappropriately or without permission can submit a removal request to us via email or the Contact Us form. Any technological alteration of an image used will be acknowledged.
10. Corrections and retractions
We always strive for accuracy and fairness and encourage readers to advise us of any significant errors. Whenever an error or mistake is identified, it will be corrected quickly, fully, and ungrudgingly. In the following instances, we may remove an article or image entirely: it is subject to copyright violation, it contains major flaws or inaccuracies or breaches social standards, or it violates our editorial integrity and principles.
11. Dealing with complaints
Any complaint can be submitted to us via email or our Contact Us form. Our editor responsible for the article will assess the complaint, discuss it with the relevant author(s) and other stakeholders, and attempt to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of all parties. The complainant will be notified of the outcome of the complaint.
12. Comments
Any reader can post a comment about any article in the comments section following that article. We encourage readers to question what is published on our website. Generally, comments should be relevant to the article, and reply to the comment relevant to the initiating post. We reserve the right to publish only the comments that will advance the discussion and further inform our readers. We may also stick a pertinent comment to the top of the comments section for long-term visibility. We reserve the right to delete some comments for the following reasons:
- Off-topic remarks.
- Personal attacks.
- All forms of discrimination.
- Intrusion to individuals’ privacy.
- Spam comments with external links.
- Defamatory comments, or breach of copyright.
- Misinformation or distorted facts.
- Comments that have breached social standards.
- Comments that are subject to legal risk.
- Out-of-dated comments.
13. Advertising & Funding
CareOurEarth is a startup website. It may generate revenue, via advertisement and/or sponsored content, to fund our journalism and editorial excellence. We will carefully differentiate non-journalistic pieces, including advertisements and sponsored posts, in our news reports, if appropriate, so as not to confuse our readers. All sources of funding will be acknowledged or publicly disclosed in a timely way.
(Posted on January 3, 2022)