Purpose and scope
This policy governs the conduct of everyone who produces editorial content for Religious Liberty TV — staff, editors, contributors, columnists, freelancers, photographers, and video producers. Contributed and syndicated work is accepted on these terms.
These standards are enforceable. They are not aspirations.
Mission and independence
We report on religious liberty because we believe it matters. We are candid about that. A publication that pretends to have no reason for existing is not more trustworthy than one that states its purpose plainly.
But a commitment to a constitutional principle is not a commitment to any party, litigant, organization, or outcome. Those are different things, and confusing them is how mission-driven journalism becomes advocacy in disguise. Accordingly:
- We cover religious liberty claims across traditions, including claims brought by faiths whose beliefs our readers may find unfamiliar or objectionable, and including claims that cut against the interests of communities close to us. A principle applied selectively is not a principle.
- We report losses as fully as wins, including losses by litigants whose cause we find sympathetic, and including the weaknesses in their arguments.
- We report when a religious liberty claim is weak, opportunistic, or pretextual, and when a court says so.
- We take seriously the interests on the other side of these cases — establishment concerns, third-party harms, civil rights claims, institutional interests — and represent them as their proponents would recognize them, not as strawmen.
- We do not function as a communications arm for any litigating organization, church, denomination, advocacy group, or firm.
Affiliation disclosure. This publication is not affiliated with any religious denomination or institution.
Independence from funding and ownership
Our owners, funders, donors, advertisers, and sponsors have no role in editorial decisions. No one outside the editorial staff reviews or approves an article before publication. No one may condition support on coverage, or on the absence of coverage.
We cover our own funders, affiliated institutions, and their disputes on the same terms as anyone else, and we disclose the relationship within the article when we do. Where a funder is a party to litigation we are reporting, that fact is stated in the piece.
Conflicts of interest
Disclose first, decide second. Anyone who becomes aware of a personal, financial, professional, familial, or congregational connection to a story raises it with an editor before proceeding, not after publication.
We do not report on:
- Cases in which we, a member of our household, or a close family member is a party, counsel, witness, or expert.
- Organizations in which we hold a paid position, board seat, or officer role.
- Matters in which we hold a financial interest that could be affected by our coverage.
Where a connection is real but does not require recusal — membership in a congregation involved in a dispute, a past professional association, a personal friendship with a source — it is disclosed to readers within the article.
Editors do not review work in which they hold the same conflicts.
Gifts, travel, and hospitality
We accept no gifts, fees, favors, free services, discounts, or preferential treatment from sources, litigants, or organizations we cover. Items of nominal value that cannot reasonably be declined are returned, donated, or disclosed.
We pay our own way. Where travel to cover a hearing, argument, or conference is funded by a third party, either the arrangement is declined or the funding is disclosed prominently in the resulting coverage.
Review copies of books, filings, and research materials may be accepted. Advertising and editorial decisions are made by different people.
Fairness
We give people a chance to answer. Anyone facing a significant adverse claim in our reporting is contacted for comment with a reasonable deadline before publication, and their response — or their refusal — is included.
We represent beliefs accurately. Religious traditions are described in terms their adherents would recognize. We do not caricature doctrine, treat unfamiliar practice as inherently suspect, or attribute the conduct of individuals to their faith community as a whole. Where a belief is contested within a tradition, we say so rather than presenting one position as the tradition’s.
We describe people as they describe themselves, using the names, titles, and terms subjects use for themselves, while noting contested terminology where the dispute is itself part of the story.
We do not manufacture balance. Where the law or the record is clear, we say so. Fairness means representing positions accurately and giving subjects a hearing; it does not mean treating a settled question as open, or granting equal weight to a claim the evidence does not support.
Sourcing ethics
We identify ourselves as journalists and state our purpose before interviewing. We do not misrepresent who we are or obtain information through deception, impersonation, or concealed recording. In the rare case where information of substantial public importance can be obtained no other way, an undercover method requires approval in advance and is disclosed to readers in the resulting story.
We record only with the knowledge of the person recorded, and we comply with the recording consent laws of the relevant jurisdiction.
We honor the terms of an interview as agreed at the time it is given — on the record, on background, off the record — and we settle those terms before the conversation, not after. Sources may not retroactively withdraw statements already made on the record, and we do not grant quote approval or copy approval to sources.
We protect the identity of confidential sources, including from legal compulsion. Anonymity is granted under the conditions set out in our Fact-Checking and Verification Policy. We do not pay sources for information.
Privacy and vulnerable subjects
Litigation exposes private people to public scrutiny they did not seek. Plaintiffs in religious liberty cases frequently face harassment as a result of coverage.
- We weigh the public interest against foreseeable harm before publishing identifying details, and we do not publish home addresses, workplaces, congregational locations, or identifying details of family members absent clear necessity.
- Minors are not named or pictured in a way that identifies them without the consent of a parent or guardian, and we take particular care with student plaintiffs, minors in custody and school disputes, and children in abuse-related litigation.
- Victims of sexual abuse are not identified without their explicit consent, regardless of whether a court filing names them.
- Sealed, expunged, and inadvertently disclosed records are not published merely because they came into our possession; the decision is made by an editor on public-interest grounds.
- We consider the durability of publication. A person named in an article we publish today will be findable under that name indefinitely.
Originality and attribution
We publish original work. Plagiarism — presenting another’s words, reporting, structure, or analysis as our own — is grounds for termination of employment or of a contributor relationship, and for retraction of the affected work.
We credit other outlets by name and link when we build on their reporting, and we say when a story was broken elsewhere. Aggregation is labeled as such and adds something of our own. We do not lift quotations gathered by other journalists without attribution. Fabrication of any kind — invented sources, quotations, scenes, or details — is treated identically to plagiarism.
Artificial intelligence
Generative tools are not used to write, report, or summarize for publication. Their permitted uses and the verification required are set out in our [Fact-Checking and Verification Policy]. Every published piece is the work of a named human author who is accountable for it.
Advertising, sponsorship, and support
Advertising and sponsored content are visually distinct from editorial content and labeled unambiguously. Sponsors have no advance access to editorial material and no influence over it. We do not accept advertising designed to be mistaken for reporting.
Affiliate links, if any, are disclosed at the point of use. Reader donations and grants are acknowledged at [Ownership and Funding]; donors receive no editorial consideration of any kind.
Legal information, not legal advice
We report and analyze law. We do not provide legal advice, and nothing we publish creates an attorney-client relationship or should be relied on as a substitute for consulting a licensed attorney about a specific situation. Law changes, jurisdictions differ, and an article accurate on its publication date may not describe the current state of the law. Readers facing a legal problem should seek qualified counsel.
Staff conduct in public
What editorial staff publish under their own names in public — on social media, in speeches, in other outlets — reflects on this publication. Staff do not take public positions on pending matters they cover, attack sources or subjects personally, or post material that would be unpublishable here. Corrections owed for statements made on social platforms are made on those platforms.
Accountability
Substantiated violations result in consequences proportionate to the breach, up to termination and public retraction of affected work. Where a breach has affected published material, we disclose that to readers rather than quietly withdrawing it, under our [Corrections Policy].
This policy is reviewed annually and revised as necessary. Material revisions are dated and noted here.