At all times we must protect ourselves from legal action. Therefore you must be careful not to defame or make libellous allegations. You expose yourself and THEGAYUK to legal action and as a non-profit organisation, we do not have the resources to pay for these.
Being Neutral.
We strive to speak for the entire LGBT community and we come in all shapes, sizes, classes, religions, political persuasions and genders, therefore it is important to never exclude a demographic. If you do write a piece specifically about an organisation, you must write about it in the first person. ‘I feel…’ opposed to ‘We feel…’. The statement ‘These views expressed are my own and do not reflect those of THEGAYUK’ must appear somewhere within your copy. It is important that THEGAYUK remains politically impartial.
Legality.
Please read the BBC’s college of journalism guide to defamation and ensure that you understand it. You and TheGayUK are both liable if you submit actionable content. You and the company’s owners could be sued. Therefore please respect that fact before uploading anything that may cause such action. Any article that fails to meet these standards, will be removed without warning.
Defamation is where you write, say or publish something about someone that:
• lowers them in the estimation of right-thinking members of the public and/or • causes them to be shunned or avoided and/or
• disparages them in their business, trade, office or profession and/or
• exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt.
You risk defaming someone if you repeat defamatory comments previously published by others – e.g. in newspapers – either by quoting them or using them in an interview or soundbite.
Please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/law/defamation/ and take the short test to ensure you understand defamation. There is a principle of ‘fair comment’ in English law which provides a defence if your article meets all of the following:
• It is supported by the facts,
• It is honestly held,
• It is on a matter of public interest,
• It is not malicious.
If the editorial team at TheGayUK believes that your work will expose us and you to ANY legal action we will delete and remove the offending article from our systems and services, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.
If you are accused of libel you must amend the offending article, by emailing thehub@thegayuk.comand let us know so we can remove the item immediately. Legal action will be sought for TheGayUK. You may need to seek your own legal counsel.
• Do not Enter into a debate about the allegation. • Alert the editorial team.
• Do not admit or deny ANYTHING.
Google and other search engines cache our pages and if you’ve defamed or libelled someone it can exist forever. It is near impossible to delete a defamatory comment from the web once it’s been cached. It is best to never make the comment in the first place.