Code of Ethics & Correction Policy

Preamble

Voces Indígenas Media (VIM), including Radio Indígena 94.1 FM and vocesindigenasmedia.com, exists to serve the Indigenous, Mixteco, and migrant farmworker communities of California’s Central Coast with news and storytelling in the languages they actually speak — Spanish, English, and Indigenous languages including Mixteco and other Mesoamerican languages. We are a project of the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), and our credibility depends on the same thing every newsroom’s credibility depends on: that our audience can trust what we tell them is true.

This document sets out how we gather, report, and correct the news. It draws on ethics guidance shared by the Institute for Nonprofit News and on ProPublica’s Code of Ethics, adapted to the realities of a small bilingual/trilingual nonprofit newsroom reporting on and with mixed-status Indigenous communities. It is a living document. When a situation isn’t covered here, the standard is simple: when in doubt, ask an editor before you publish.

Part I — Code of Ethics

1. Our North Star: Accuracy and Truth

Everything we publish must be accurate, fair, and honestly reported. Our audience must be able to assume that:

• Our facts are correct and verified before publication, not after.
• Our stories represent our best independent reporting, not the preferences of a source, funder, advertiser, or MICOP program staff.
• We have no hidden agenda in any story we publish.

We verify information with at least one independent source whenever possible before publishing, and we distinguish clearly, in every story, between what we know to be fact, what a source told us, and what remains unconfirmed.

2. Editorial Independence — Including From MICOP

VIM is housed within MICOP, and that relationship is a strength: it gives us direct access to the communities we cover and a mission we believe in. It is also a responsibility we take seriously. Our news judgment belongs to our editorial staff alone.

• MICOP’s organizing, advocacy, and program staff do not assign, edit, approve, or kill news stories.
• When VIM reports on MICOP itself — its programs, leadership, funding, or disputes — the story is reported and edited with the same independence and scrutiny as any other subject, and that MICOP affiliation is disclosed to the audience in the story.
• Funders, donors, and sponsors have no role in and no advance knowledge of editorial content or decisions.
• If a funder, donor, or advertiser is the subject of a story, that relationship is disclosed to readers within the story.

3. Fairness, Dignity, and Non-Victim Framing

Our commitment to dignity is not a style preference — it is central to how we practice journalism in Indigenous and migrant communities that are routinely flattened into statistics or stereotypes by other outlets.

• We portray the people we cover as full human beings with agency, resilience, and complexity — never only as victims, and never only as symbols of a larger issue.
• Whenever a story portrays a person or institution in a negative light, we make a genuine effort to get their response, give them reasonable time to reply, and explain in the story what efforts we made if we don’t hear back.
• A story is not fair if it omits facts of major significance, and it is not fair if it misleads the reader even when every individual fact in it is technically true.
• We describe people’s ethnicity, Indigenous nation or community, immigration status, and language the way they describe themselves, and we ask rather than assume.

4. Protecting Sources in Mixed-Status Communities

Much of our reporting involves people who are undocumented, seeking asylum, or otherwise vulnerable to immigration enforcement, labor retaliation, or community stigma. Source protection is a safety issue, not just an editorial one.

• We grant anonymity or use of a pseudonym/first name only when a source could face real harm — detention, deportation, job loss, family separation, or violence — from being identified, and we say so in the story.
• We do not disclose a source’s immigration status, exact home address, workplace, or identifying details (including in photos or audio) unless the source has given informed, specific consent to that disclosure.
• We explain to every source, before an interview, how their words and image may be used, in which languages, and on which platforms (web, radio, social media).
• We never misidentify ourselves as something other than VIM/Radio Indígena journalists to obtain an interview or information.

5. Cultural and Linguistic Integrity

Reporting in Mixteco and other Indigenous languages, and in Spanish, is core to our mission, not a translation afterthought.

• Audio segments and translations are reviewed by a fluent speaker of the relevant language variant before publication; we identify the specific regional variant (e.g., Mixteco, Metlatónoc variant) where known, since Indigenous languages are not interchangeable.
• Meaning, not just words, must survive translation — a translation that is literally accurate but culturally misleading is treated as an accuracy error.
• We consult community members and cultural authorities when reporting on traditions, ceremonies, or internal community matters we are not ourselves expert in.

6. Use of Artificial Intelligence

AI tools may assist with tasks like transcription, translation drafts, or research, but they do not replace reporting or editorial judgment.

• Staff remain responsible for everything published; any AI-assisted material is reviewed and verified by a person before publication.
• We do not use AI to generate quotes, composite characters, fictional details, or synthetic images/audio presented as real.
• We are transparent with our audience whenever AI has played a meaningful role in producing a story, translation, or audio piece.

7. Conflicts of Interest, Gifts, and Payment

• We do not pay sources for interviews or information.
• Staff disclose to an editor any personal, family, financial, or volunteer relationship with a story’s subject before reporting proceeds.
• Staff do not accept gifts, payments, or favors of more than nominal value from sources, subjects, vendors, or organizations covered in our reporting.
• Staff may participate in civic and community life, but avoid public advocacy — organizing, rallies, or public positions — on the specific issues or organizations they personally cover, to protect the newsroom’s credibility.

8. Public Conduct and Social Media

• Staff identify themselves accurately in public and on social media when discussing their journalism.
• Personal social media activity should not suggest that VIM has taken a side on a contested policy question its reporting covers.
• Staff do not share unpublished reporting, sources’ identities, or embargoed material outside the newsroom.

9. Accountability and Enforcement

All staff, contributors, and volunteers are expected to read this Code at the start of their work with VIM and whenever it is revised. Concerns about a possible violation — by any staff member, at any level — should be raised with an editor or, if that is not comfortable, with MICOP leadership directly. Reports may be made confidentially. No one who raises a good-faith concern will face retaliation. Violations may result in correction, retraining, or disciplinary action up to dismissal, depending on severity.

When in doubt, ask. That question is always welcome.

Part II — Correction Policy

1. Our Commitment

We tell the truth, and when we get something wrong, we say so — clearly, quickly, and without defensiveness. Corrections are not an embarrassment; failing to correct an error is. This policy applies to every platform we publish on: the website, Radio Indígena 94.1 FM, and our social media accounts, in every language we publish in.

2. Corrections vs. Clarifications

• Correction: used when published information was factually wrong — a misspelled name, an incorrect date, a wrong title, a misattributed quote, an inaccurate figure, or a misidentified person, place, or organization.
• Clarification: used when information was technically accurate but could reasonably confuse or mislead readers/listeners, and needs added context to be understood as intended.

Both are treated with equal seriousness. We do not quietly edit a published story to fix a substantive error without noting that a change was made.

3. How to Report an Error

Anyone — a source, a subject of coverage, or a member of the public — can flag a possible error. We make it easy to reach us:

• Email: correcciones@vocesindigenasmedia.com (English or Spanish; Mixteco-language voice messages accepted for radio-related errors)
• A visible «Report an Error» link on every story page and in the show notes for Radio Indígena broadcasts

We acknowledge every good-faith report within 2 business days.

4. Our Process

• The reporter and their editor review the claim against original notes, recordings, and documents.
• If an error is confirmed, it is corrected as soon as it is verified — we do not wait for a weekly schedule or a print deadline.
• For web stories, the story itself is corrected, and a dated editor’s note is added to the bottom (or top, for significant factual errors) of the story explaining exactly what was wrong and what was fixed.
• We do not silently delete a published story to make an error disappear. If a story must be removed entirely (e.g., for legal or safety reasons, such as endangering a source), that removal itself is logged internally with the reason.

5. How Corrections Are Published

Every correction and clarification is logged, dated, and posted to a public Corrections page on vocesindigenasmedia.com, in the language(s) the original story was published in, following this format:

Correction, [Date]: [Plain description of what was wrong and what is now correct.] — linked to the corrected story.

6. Corrections on Radio Indígena 94.1 FM

Audio is harder to correct after the fact than text, so we hold broadcast facts to the same pre-publication scrutiny as written stories. When a factual error airs:

• We issue an on-air correction in the next relevant broadcast segment, in the same language(s) the error aired in.
• If the segment is archived online, we add a written correction note to the audio’s show notes or webpage.

7. Serious Errors

Errors involving a person’s safety (for example, information that could expose an undocumented source or survivor of violence to harm), a person’s reputation, or a significant factual claim are escalated immediately to the editor in chief, corrected as fast as verification allows, and may include direct outreach to the affected person.

8. Review

This Code of Ethics and Correction Policy is reviewed at least once a year, and after any significant incident, by VIM’s editorial leadership. Suggested revisions can be raised by any staff member at any time.