For the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), social media is an effective and important channel to communicate with members and others interested in our mission. It allows us to disseminate environmental news, share our members’ work, track the impact and popularity of stories and topics, discuss pressing issues in journalism, and converse with people from all over the world.
This policy applies to official SEJ social media accounts in order to ensure we are upholding journalistic ethics and standards while communicating with our members and the public.
- Because the SEJ social media accounts represent all of its members, board members and staff, SEJ social media platforms must reflect the organization's mission and vision and the highest standards of journalistic integrity.
- SEJ does and will continue to editorialize on media freedom, FOI, protections for journalists and challenges with access to information, as well as other issues related to journalistic integrity and SEJ's mission. The staff or volunteer operating social media accounts can shape the voice of this commentary as it fits within these policies.
- The voice of SEJ social media accounts reflects the entire organization, not one person. SEJ shares coverage of political issues, but does not promote personal political views, endorsements or offensive comments. This includes reposting others’ posts.
- If a factual error or something inappropriate is posted, it should be acknowledged and corrected (and deleted if possible) in a subsequent post.
- Whoever is operating SEJ social media accounts retains the right to mute, report or block people who are deemed to be threatening or abusive. Staff or board members are to be notified if the situation escalates.
- SEJ accounts should share stories from a diverse array of journalists, geographic locations, environmental issues and media outlets.
