Ethics and Standards

Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of good practice applicable to our network of writers and the specific challenges they face in their everyday reporting and newsgathering. While journalists in the United States and around the world adhere to a set of ethics and standards, such codes can vary from news organization to country.

Producing content that is accurate, fair and of the highest quality is the mission of The Media Project and its news publication, religion unplugged.com. We adhere to the set of ethics and standards put forth by the Society of Professional Journalists.

To download those standards, please visit: https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Editorial Independence

The Media Project and Religion Unplugged aims to publish original reporting of high quality that is public service by nature and focused on religion reporting. The site also publishes some reported opinion and commentary on religion.

Religion Unplugged applies high journalistic standards for accuracy and fairness in order to prevent conflicts of interest that could compromise the integrity of the work. This is why we espouse the SPJ Code of Ethics as our standard.

Religion Unplugged produces nonpartisan reporting that is not based upon, influenced by, or supportive of the interests or policies of any single political party or political viewpoint or any single religion or religious viewpoint. TMP does not advocate for public policy or legislative actions, though policy or legislative changes may be a consequence of their reporting. TMP lobbies only for freedom of information and freedom of press issues.