RetroTreat Main Guidelines
RetroTreat is an organization creating impartial, high-quality content while acting in the public interest with the sole intention of educating, informing, and entertaining our subscribers.
RetroTreat works independently of any government and puts together unbiased content with creative freedom and journalistic integrity that is not reliant on any outside funding or partial to political agendas.
RetroTreat regularly reviews editorial guidelines to ensure we maintain our standards and integrity. Publishing these guidelines here fulfills our obligation as a media-house and affords our subscribers full transparency.
1. RetroTreat values
RetroTreat audiences have come to expect the highest editorial standards from us and trust that we will always maintain and aspire to improve the levels they are used to seeing.
We operate in the public interest by reporting stories of significance to our audiences. We seek to establish the truth by using the highest reporting standards to provide coverage that is fair and accurate.
Our specialist expertise provides professional judgment with clear analysis. We maintain impartiality by seeking to reflect the views and experiences of our audiences so that our output as a whole reflects a wide diversity of opinion where no significant strand of thought is either under-represented or completely omitted.
We act independently of outside interests and arrangements that could compromise our journalistic integrity. Our editorial standards require a level of neutrality but not detachment from fundamental democratic principles.
2. The public interest
RetroTreat, as a media publisher, is acting within the public interest at all times. We release original content to inform, educate, and entertain the followers of our site.
RetroTreat means freedom of expression, providing information that is interesting to readers while preventing people from being purposefully misled by the statements or actions of individuals or organizations.
3. Complaints
We are open to acknowledging mistakes when they are made and willing to learn from them. We hereby set and publish procedures for the handling and resolution of complaints, as is required.
To make a complaint, please send your message to info@amomama.com for our attention.
1. Privacy violations and image privacy rights
RetroTreat respects the privacy and protection of personal information. We must consider the gentle balance between privacy and our right to broadcast information in the public interest to meet our ethical, regulatory, and legal obligations when creating content. We must be able to justify any infringement of an individual’s privacy without their consent by demonstrating that the intrusion is outweighed by public interest.
When reporting stories involving human suffering and distress, an individual’s privacy and respect for their human dignity must be balanced against public interest.
When we take videos and images from social media and other websites accessible to the public, they may reach a wider audience than was intended. Where the content features individuals who have personally posted material on social media, their expectation of privacy may be reduced, particularly when an individual has shown a clear understanding of the impact that posting information on social media may have on their privacy, or where privacy controls have not been used.
RetroTreat must never share content that infringes copyright. Careful consideration must always be given as to who is the copyright holder of any image used.
Accuracy requires the editorial team to not only get the facts right but to weigh up relevant opinions as well to get a clear understanding of the truth.
Wherever possible and whenever appropriate, we should:
- use first-hand sources when gathering material
- check all the facts and statistics and identify potential caveats and limitations
- validate the authenticity of any documentary evidence and digital material discovered
- corroborate the claims and allegations made
- weigh, interpret, and contextualize any claims, including statistical claims made.
1. False News
RetroTreat must never knowingly reproduce, distribute, or encourage the spreading of false news through:
- Disinformation: Information that is clearly false and created with the sole purpose of harming a person, social group, organization, or country
- Misinformation: Information that is false but not intentionally created to harm anyone
- Mal-information: Information that, while based on reality, is used to purposefully inflict harm on a person, social group, organization, or country.
2. Misleading
RetroTreat must never knowingly attempt to mislead the reader through the use of phrasing that is ambiguous or open to interpretation.
We need to differentiate between fact and rumor, taking care to attribute all material to their respective sources to enable unbiased scrutiny at all levels.
RetroTreat does not produce content of a political nature, and we should remain unbiased and apolitical in our reporting of any world events touching on politics.
The European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act of 1998, as well as other national and international acts and agreements, have clearly set out the right to exercise the freedom of thought and religion, including the freedom to worship, teach, practice, and observe.
Since religious beliefs are fundamental in many people’s lives, we must ensure that we use the proper degree of responsibility with respect to any content about religion and all related output.
Producers of articles and related content have editorial freedom to express faith and to explore matters of faith; however, it must be ensured that the religious views and beliefs of anyone belonging to a particular religious denomination are in no way subjected to abusive treatment.
All readers, especially those most vulnerable, must be protected from exploitation. Any religious output should not be used to recruit readers, for example, by making direct appeals to audiences to join any particular religion.
1. Suicide and self-Injury
RetroTreat does not publish content advocating suicide, anorexia, or any other method of self-harm.
Content depicting suicide, attempted suicide, and self-harm should be portrayed with sensitivity at all times. Factual reporting of suicide, attempted suicide, and self-harm has the potential to make such actions appear attractive or feasible to those susceptible.
Methods used for suicide and self-harm must not be included in output except where they are editorially justified and are within context. Under no circumstances should we include explicit details that would allow any method of suicide to be imitated.
Self-injury is defined as an intentional injuring of the body that includes self-mutilation and eating disorders.
Care is required when portraying mental illnesses that are potentially imitable, including conditions such as anorexia or bulimia. We should be aware that some people may wish to imitate or emulate the behavior and techniques depicted and curb our reports accordingly.
RetroTreat includes telephone numbers for suicide prevention centers at the end of all articles dealing with this type of content.
2. Sexual content
RetroTreat does not publish content that includes graphic sexual text, imagery, audio, or video clips.
We also do not share content that contains non-consensual sexual themes, whether simulated or real or content that could be interpreted as us promoting a sexual act in exchange for compensation.
3. Child abuse
All children and youth have the right to be protected from harm and abuse. RetroTreat does not publish content that sexually exploits or endangers children in any way. We fully support family safety online.
Child sexual abuse imagery is defined as visual depictions of minors engaged in a sexual act, including but not limited to photographs, videos, cartoons, drawings, paintings, and sculptures whether the image involves a real child or a computer-generated, morphed, composite, or otherwise altered image that appears to be a child, according to United States federal law.
This law also includes soliciting minors for sexual acts, which is known as "enticement."
Pedophilia refers to any content or behavior (images, texts, videos, etc.) that depicts, encourages, or promotes sexual attraction by adults aimed toward minors.
Any information we disclose about children and youth must never put them at risk of harm.
1. Bullying and harassment
RetroTreat does not publish content that harasses, intimidates, or bullies an individual or group of individuals in any way, shape, or form.
Bullying and harassment can occur in various forms, including but not limited to threats, releasing personally identifiable information, and making unsolicited and unwanted contact with malicious intentions.
RetroTreat does not tolerate this kind of behavior that prevents people from feeling safe and respected on our forums.
2. Racism and other
RetroTreat does not publish content that incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages any individual or group on the basis of their race.
Our content may reflect the prejudices and disadvantages which exist in societies worldwide, but we should not perpetuate them. We should avoid careless or offensive stereotyping, and people should only be described in such terms when editorially justified.
3. Obscene speech
RetroTreat does not publish content that can be construed as hate speech that disparages any group of people based on their ethnicity, race, religion, or otherwise unless the subject matter is used to reflect a particular situation and can be justified within the editorial context.
Furthermore, obscenities and vulgarities must be censored in all direct quotes without exception.
1. Gambling and games
RetroTreat does not promote online/offline gambling (physical, real-money gambling activity or establishments, promotion of sites that contain or link to content relating to online gambling, online non-casino games, social casino games).
2. Drugs and alcohol
RetroTreat does not promote the manufacture, consumption, nor sale of any medicinal or non-medicinal drug or alcoholic beverage.
3. Dangerous individuals and organizations
RetroTreat does not promote content that expresses support or praise for groups, leaders, or individuals involved in such things as human trafficking, terrorist activity, organized crime, etc.
4. Healthcare and medicines
RetroTreat does not promote any of the medicines and remedies mentioned in content about healthcare.
The disclaimer at the bottom of such articles should refer readers to seek professional medical advice for any health-related issue.
Our audiences must be able to trust RetroTreat at all times and remain confident that any editorial decisions made are not influenced by outside interests, or as a result of succumbing to political or commercial pressures.
A potential conflict of interest can arise when there is a possibility that an individual’s external activities or interests could affect, or be reasonably perceived as affecting RetroTreat’s impartiality and integrity, or risk damaging RetroTreat’s reputation generally, or the value of the RetroTreat brand.
Personal conflicts of interest may occur in any area of our work, and editorial staff should take immediate steps to withdraw themselves from topics that they cannot remain neutral from before creating potentially biased content that could affect the RetroTreat brand.