Editorial Policy

• TalkMotorsport is about opinion, perspective and comment, primarily reflecting the views of its contributors (opinion and perspective) combined with feedback from you the reader (comment)

Opinion – this is a view formed about something and contributed to the website. It is not necessarily based on fact or knowledge but is a viewpoint gained from experience and expressed by the contributor.

Perspective – this is where the contributor gives their ‘take’ or viewpoint on a particular subject. An opinion and give you a perspective view on a particular topic.

Comment – This is the response to what has been written and gives the reader the opportunity to contribute to the discussion whether you agree or disagree.

Fact – A fact is something that is known to be true, to exist or to have happened. i.e. Sebastien Vettel won the 2018 Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

While an opinion would be expressed such as: ‘Vettel’s win had little substance given the miss-calculation of the Mercedes F1 Team.’
A contributors perspective may be that ‘Mercedes F1 cannot afford any more mistakes as Ferrari have shown that they will take any opportunity afforded to them.’

Accuracy
TalkMotorsport will never publish anything the author/contributor knows to be untrue. If it does publish anything that is non-trivially factually inaccurate, it will correct it as soon as possible.

Occasionally a post may be rewritten to reflect new information, when it is not desirable to keep the inaccurate original information in the post.

TalkMotorsport does not have the resources to double source all information it receives. It will sometimes publish information it receives from readers, if it deems the source credible.

Balance
TalkMotorsport primarily reflects the views of its editor, Benjamin Carrell and its designated listed contributors.  However, TalkMotorsport is designed for debate and discussion and a balance of views can be achieved by contrary views being published in the comments section.

TalkMotorsport is also generally amenable to running guest posts or a right of reply on a topic, even when those views do not reflect the editor’s. This is an important point, a guest post is the view or opinion of the writer and not necessarily of TalkMotorsport.

However, TalkMotorsport will primarily be publishing stories that reflect the views of the editor and contributors on issues, and this will be the dominant view.

Fairness
TalkMotorsport will link to quoted material (if available online), so that readers can easily follow through to see extracted material in its full context.

TalkMotorsport generally allows a right of reply, both in comments or as a guest post – subject to overall editorial quality control.

Privacy
TalkMotorsport has an internal privacy policy here. TalkMotorsport asserts that as it makes observations on motorsport news, for the purposes of dissemination to the public or any section of the public, it is a news medium undertaking news activity and hence not an agency for the purposes of the Privacy Act.

In terms of publishing details of individuals, TalkMotorsport will balance up the public interest against an individual’s desire for privacy. Whether such details are already in the public domain will be a key consideration.

Responsible Content
TalkMotorsport, its contributors and its editor receive no payments for content, except advertising.  While contributors may undertake work for other organisations, this is outlined in their bios.

Comment and Fact
TalkMotorsport is a mixture of news reporting and opinion. Blog readers understand this. It will generally be clear by use of quotes and extracts what is news, and what is opinion. Most posts are reflecting the opinion of the author, but some will be reporting or reflecting original news.

Comments are also made by some blog readers. These are not moderated in advance by the editor and do not reflect the opinion of anyone but the person making them, and should not be seen as news. A comments policy applies to these.

Complaints against comments should be made to: info@talkmotorsport.co.nz.

Confidentiality
TalkMotorsport receives significant amounts of (generally unsolicited) information from sources. It will not name or reveal the sources, unless they agree. The exception will be if knowingly false information is provided.

TalkMotorsport receives many unsolicited contributions from readers. Sometimes these will be quoted in a blog post.

Conflicts of Interests
Potential conflicts are disclosed here. TalkMotorsport does not accept money for posts, unless they are marked as a paid advertisement. Posts reflect the views of the author/contributor.

Photographs and Graphics
TalkMotorsport endeavours to always credit photographer for their work. If, we neglect to do this it will be an oversight which we are more than happy to correct.

Corrections
See Accuracy

Authors
All posts made by Benjamin Carrell are my own work. I may sometimes seek information from various sources, but I always write my posts myself, and in my own words. I will quote words written by others, not use it as my own.

This is also the same for regular TalkMotorsport contributors.