The Media Outlet has been independently certified according to the JTI Programme and CWA 17493:2019.

Certified by

Alliance for Audited Media – Northern America

Date of certification

24/07/2023

Contact details

1600 McConnor Parkway
60173 Schaumburg
United States of America

Media Outlet Colorado Public Radio Legal Entity Public Broadcasting of Colorado, Incorporated Date of first publication 22/06/2021 Date of Latest Change 17/07/2023

10. Accuracy

10.1. Processes for Ensuring Accuracy

The Media Outlet shall have internal rules with a systematic editorial process to make sure that the content is accurate and the Editorial Guidelines are adhered to. This may include the verification process for the content and the role of editorial oversight.

Do you have internal rules and a systematic editorial process to ensure the accuracy of your content?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

CPR – Reporter gathers facts, data and tape. Reporters and their direct editors discuss angle and findings of reporting and agree on angle to tell the story. Editor then goes through the story, doublechecking data, listening to taped interviews and fact-checking any information. A production editor then reads or listens to the story, raising any questions. Story is aired or published.

Do you have internal rules and a systematic editorial process to ensure that the Editorial Guidelines are adhered to?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

CPR – After a story is aired or published, we might discuss whether it succeeded in our mission or could it have been better. We hold monthly listening sessions where the staff gathers to talk about two or three stories and what we learned. We have a corrections policy if someone complains about a perceived inaccuracy.

Do you have a verification process for content and the role of editorial oversight?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

CPR – All requests for correction received through email, phone or social media are investigated by the originating editor and reporter. Their findings are given to the executive editor who decides on a course of action. Stories with errors are corrected and an editor's note is appended. If a story is found to not be in error, the editor responds to the person complaining.

10.2. Process Review

There shall be a mechanism for the periodic review of the editorial processes to ensure that they are in compliance with the Editorial Guidelines and that the accountability processes are effective and being used to support them.

Do you have a mechanism for periodic review of the effectiveness of the implementation of your Editorial Guidelines in your editorial processes?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

CPR – We have weekly News leadership meetings where we talk about issues in the newsroom and whether we are achieving our mission. We evaluate areas of coverage and make adjustments based on news and resources. The executive editor and the news director have weekly meetings with the content teams to talk specifics within their groups. The managing editor has weekly meetings with his digital and daily news teams to discuss wins and losses. We have quarterly beat priority meetings where the topic teams list the angles they want to pursue – those are reviewed and approved/adjusted by senior news leadership.

Is your accountability mechanism (internal or external) subject to periodic review?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

CPR – We have a position in senior News leadership: Managing Editor/Accountability and Engagement. This editor leads our source tracking program as well as our Language Work Group that reviews style and language usage monthly. We always adjust procedures based on new information when appropriate.

10.3. Statistics and External Content

Statistics and external photographs/video/audio content should be sourced and verified.

Do your Editorial Guidelines require that statistics should be sourced and verified?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

CPR - Every fact is sourced and verified.

Do your Editorial Guidelines require that external photographs/video/audio content should be sourced and verified?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

CPR – Yes. We rarely use crowdsourced content at all and we certainly don't without verifying it. We may link to social media posts, but only after verifying that the person had first-hand account.

10.4. Identification of Journalists, Agencies

Principle and secondary authors should be identified, or if not, then recorded via publishing mechanisms, so that this information can be accessed if there is a query. This includes any news agency material subscribed to by the Media Outlet. Any details of individuals should be subject to the legal requirements of data protection and security considerations.

Are the Individual Journalists (including external sources) identified, for example through a byline, or recorded in publishing mechanism so that this information can be accessed?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

Stories have bylines that link to biographies of staff. Photos have credits.

Is all News Agency material used by the Media Outlet recorded and tracked?

Yes

10.5. Location Reporting

In news reporting, it should be clear to any reader or audience where a report is being written from, and if it includes location reporting. Where location reporting is constrained due to the mechanism or conditions of the facilitation this should be identified, e.g. an embed with an official army or independent travel with local militias. This may also include occasions where the reporting has been facilitated by a commercial, NGO or governmental organisation and labelling is necessary for transparency.

Is location reporting identified in your content?

Yes

Do your Editorial Guidelines ensure that any constraint on location reporting be explained in the report or in the context of its publication?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

Yes, if we were to have access to a location only because of a military embedding or like situation, we would disclose that in the story. But we have not done that in my time at CPR (since Dec 2017). We never accept free travel or accommodations for covering a story.

Do your Editorial Guidelines require transparency where a location report has been facilitated by an external body?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

10.6. Automatically Generated Content

News content generated, wholly or partly, automatically by means of algorithmic processes (such as but not limited to text generating systems, bots or artificial intelligence) shall be clearly indicated.

Do you publish any content that is automatically generated?

10.7. Algorithmic Dissemination and Curation

A Media Outlet shall indicate its policy on the use of algorithms for news content dissemination or curation and its adherence to best practice requirements from regulatory or advisory bodies.

Do you use any algorithms for the dissemination or curation of content?

10.8. Treatment of Explicit Content

Editorial processes shall ensure the ethically appropriate treatment of violent and explicit content, of content which features children or other vulnerable people, and of live content.

Do your Editorial Guidelines ensure the ethically appropriate treatment of violent and explicit content?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

https://www.npr.org/about-npr/688414280/respect#respectinsensitivecircumstances
We don't have a blanket rule against this kind of content, but we rarely put it on our site - we might link to an official police video on another site with a warning that it could be graphic. If we do post it, we put a warning before someone clicks on it.

Do your Editorial Guidelines ensure the ethically appropriate treatment of content which features children or other vulnerable people?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

https://www.npr.org/about-npr/688414280/respect#respectinsensitivecircumstances

Do your Editorial Guidelines ensure the ethically appropriate handling of live content?

Yes

If you want to publish additional information, please provide it here.

Though we don't spell out "live content" in our guidelines, it would fall under the fair and accurate sections of all of our content. That said, we rarely cover live content outside of political debates or important news conference.

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