Earlier today, we got a tweet from the speaker of Student Congress regarding whether Daily Tar Heel staffers could sign a petition calling for the state-mandated $200 tuition increase to be returned to UNC-system campuses.
Absolutely, this is an important issue, as Dakota Williams points out. But there's no way we could objectively cover it if we allowed our staff members to sign a petition either way on the topic.
This goes for a lot of issues: the death penalty, student body president campaigns, and so on.
As journalists, all we have is our credibility. And a lot of that is based on our pledge to report the news objectively and completely. To protect that credibility, we avoid any outward display of our opinions — including Facebook groups, demonstrations, and yes, petitions. A caveat: We do sign petitions that do not express an opinion, but rather advocate for the public to choose (for example, a petition to put an initiative on an election ballot).
To spell all this out to our staff members, we have added the following language to our policies:
"It is acceptable to sign petitions that directly influence the democratic process, e.g. a petition to get a bond referendum on the ballot; however, staff members are prohibited from signing petitions that have the purpose of expressing a particular viewpoint or that have a political agenda."
We care about the issues. We just can't broadcast our opinions.
While it can be frustrating, in the end, I believe it is in our readers' best interest.
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