Last update: February 20, 2020
We strive to uphold the values of journalism here at News Asia Today, and take ethics and transparency very seriously. By upholding these values, we strive to provide you with coverage that is fair, accurate, and transparent.
We welcome any questions, comments, or concerns regarding our content, and we invite you to contact us should there be any issues you might have.
Funding
Our financing timeline so far:
- News Asia Today was established in 2019.
- In December 2019, we received funding from a group of angel investors.
We have made it very clear to investors and board of directors that the editorial team will maintain full editorial control of the blog’s content. Our partners clients’ companies will occasionally get coverage from us, solely because we find the story interesting.
Our sole criteria when choosing stories is based on whether we deem the story interesting and of value to our readers. We generally pass on stories that we do not find appealing in this scenario.
If we do write on any of our partner/clients’ companies, we will disclose our own connection in the article text so that readers are aware.
Investments
Staff members and compensated contributors of News Asia Today are prohibited to acquire a position in any individual equities, bonds, or other financial instruments in companies that they will likely report on.
Any interest in these companies should be held though mutual funds or similar arrangements where the decisions to buy, sell, or hold the securities are made by an independent money manager or trustee.
Staff members and paid contributors may not profit from private information learned in the course of any assignment. They may not obscure negative coverage of a company if they know it will protect the value of their holdings, or provide positive coverage of a company if they know it will increase the value of their holdings.
We accept guest posts written by people because we believe this has value for our readers. But we also make sure our guest posts are clearly labeled as such, and that our guest writers clearly disclose to readers any potential conflicts of interest, including who they are, where they work, and anything they have a financial stake in which is related to the article.
Advertising
Like most websites, News Asia Today runs advertisements and accepts financial sponsorships for events we organize. We make a clear distinction between our editorial content and any advertisements or sponsorship that we might accept.
Our content remains independent, and will not be influenced or swayed by advertisers or sponsors. Our editorial team is wholly independent and is not involved with the sale of advertisements.
We do not sell mentions, in-article image advertisements, or any other form of advertisement that might influence the quality of our content. We will hover, sell native advertisements that are relevant to our audience. These articles will be clearly labeled as sponsored at the beginning of the piece. The identity of the advertisers will also be disclosed.
Editorial process
Every story published on News Asia Today goes through one of our editors – usually more than just one. These editors have complete editorial control over the content of the blog, and they are totally segregated from the business team.
As editors, we’re fans of journalism done right, and are big believers that transparency is the new objectivity. If we have a strong viewpoint on a topic, or some connection to it, we’ll let you know about it.
We strive for speed, accuracy, and truth in our coverage, but like any publication, we fall short from time to time. We encourage readers to let us know when we’ve made an error.
Sources
The editorial team rejects stories without sources, period.
All of our stories are clearly sourced. We get stories from all over the place. Sometimes we find them ourselves, sometimes we obtain information from blogs in Asian languages, and sometimes they’re suggested by our contributors or our readers. But wherever a story comes from, we’ll make sure it’s clearly marked and, where applicable, linked.
On some occasions, we may quote or use information from anonymous sources. We will fiercely protect the identities of our sources, but we’ll also be sure readers know as much as we can safely reveal about why we’re using an anonymous source in the first place.
Fairness
While we don’t shy away from being critical, we do attempt to be fair in our coverage. To that end, we try to get in touch with companies we’re writing big stories about to give them a chance to comment.
If you feel you or your company has been treated unfairly in our coverage, please get in touch with us immediately.
Gifts
We review gadgets and software from time to time.
We will return all gadgets loaned to us for the purposes of a product review and will not keep them for personal usage.
We will not accept gadgets from manufacturers, resellers, or retailers as gifts on any occasion and will only pay for them out of our own pockets or those of News Asia Today’s.
The editorial team will occasionally receive gifts from newsmakers. To maintain objectivity, we will return/raffle/dispose gifts that are not food and are over US$20 in value.
We will, on occasion, accept sponsored trips. If any coverage results from such sponsored trips, we will disclose as such at the bottom of the articles.