Starts at 60 prides itself on being trustworthy to our community and readers. The purpose of this code is to protect and foster the bond between Starts at 60 readers and our publication and protect the integrity of our news and journalism.
This is a set of guidelines by which we operate the Starts at 60 Newsroom and news operations. It is a critical policy in the management of staff and practices.
By observing our code, journalists working for Starts at 60 will be protecting the independence, standing and reputation of themselves and their colleagues.
It is important that freelancers also abide by these guidelines while on assignment for Starts at 60.
Whilst not a paid-member, Starts at 60 is an active and vocal supporter of the code of conduct and general principles recommended by the Australian Press Council. We recommend all staff are familiar with these two critical industry standards.
Starts at 60 Content Strategy is led by founder and CEO, Rebecca Wilson.
Starts at 60 Standards of Practice
As per the standards of the Australian Press Council which we respect and implement, taking all reasonable steps to comply with the following Principles of the Press Council and adhere to the Council’s other Standards of Practice.
Starts at 60 is not a member of, but commits to abide by the standards set by the Australian Press Council’s General Principles as the peak industry body in setting the standards we work to for reporting the accuracy and impartiality of news.
All core news explainer content is edited by professional editors and written by professional journalists trained to this set of principles and standards of practice.
Please ensure you have read the General Principles and Standards of Practice prior to lodging a complaint.
We have adopted these principles and articulate them below:
Accuracy and clarity
- Ensure that factual material in news reports and elsewhere is accurate and not misleading, and is distinguishable from other material such as opinion.
- Provide a correction or other adequate remedial action if published material is significantly inaccurate or misleading.
Fairness and balance
- Ensure that factual material is presented with reasonable fairness and balance, and that writers’ expressions of opinion are not based on significantly inaccurate factual material or omission of key facts.
- Ensure that where material refers adversely to a person, a fair opportunity is given for subsequent publication of a reply if that is reasonably necessary to address a possible breach of General Principle
Privacy and avoidance of harm
- Avoid intruding on a person’s reasonable expectations of privacy, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.
- Avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest. Integrity and transparency
- Avoid publishing material which has been gathered by deceptive or unfair means, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.
- Ensure that conflicts of interests are avoided or adequately disclosed, and that they do not influence published material.
To view a more detailed overview of our internal standards please click here – Starts at 60 media ethics and code of conduct.
Our Community Co-Ordinator
Our Community Co-Ordinator
Starts at 60 takes media ethics very seriously and has a Community Co-Ordinator who coordinates and responds to all communications and complaints from our readers.
The job of the Community Co-Ordinator is to collect, consider, investigate, respond to and where appropriate close-out issues related to readers questions, concerns and complaints in a prompt and timely manner and from a position of editorial independence.
Starts at 60 news and media policy is to correct any substantial errors as soon as possible and notate any major corrections on the page of publication if deemed important.
The Community Editor’s role is to look into complaints and communications about our publication and respond to consumers complaints against the editorial code.
Before making a complaint, please read the Australian Press Council’s General Principles and Standards of Practice which you can visit here. And if you believe we have breached these principles or standards please contact us to lodge a complaint by emailing [email protected]. We will respond to you personally within 24 hours. We commit to investigate all concerns and complaints as quickly as possible and to communicate with you in response to legitimate concerns until the issue is resolved, remedied or deemed closed-out. Outstanding issues are logged by our community editor for tracking and monitored in a compliance schedule until closed out or remedied.
Lodging a complaint
Please email [email protected]. All complaints through this inbox are logged for compliance purposes so that we can manage through to close-out or remedy.
- Mark the subject of the email: COMPLAINT
- The article you’re complaining about.
- The date on which it appeared.
- The nature of your complaint in no more than 500 words.
- Which part of the General Principles or Standards of Practice it breaches.
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