The Seychelles News Agency editors, correspondents and photographers should maintain high professional and ethical standards and abide by the Editorial Guidelines with the purpose of producing high quality journalism, while establishing trust with the national and international readership as well as protecting the integrity and credibility of the SNA.

The Seychelles News Agency is committed to these guiding principles:

1. Obligation to tell the truth : Always hold accuracy sacrosanct.

2. Never fabricate or plagiarise information or alter a still or moving image beyond the requirements of normal image enhancement.

3. Safeguard the rights of the public to accurate and truthful information: be accountable to the public.

4. Practice a discipline of fact verification and persistence: Accuracy, as well as balance, always takes precedence over speed.

5. Always guard against putting own opinion in a news story.

6. Always correct an error openly.

7. Maintain independence from those that are covered: Always strive for balance and freedom from bias.

8. Protect freedom of expression: give a voice to the voiceless.

9. Minimize harm- sources, subjects and colleagues are human beings deserving respect.

10. Be an independent monitor of powerful groups.

11. Enable a forum for public criticism and compromise.

12. Strive to make the significant relevant and interesting: readers should not fall asleep.

13. Keep the news comprehensive and proportional: avoid sensationalism.

14. Exercise personal conscience.

15. Engage in ethical behaviour: Always reveal a conflict of interest to an editor, never pay for a story and never accept a bribe. Inform readers if free travel or accommodation was offered while reporting a story.

16. Ensure respect for human dignity, suffering, privacy and freedom from discrimination

17. Always respect privileged information and protect sources.

18. Maintain high standards of integrity and good taste.

For the full Editorial Guidelines document, download it here.

Substantial proportions of the code and guidelines have been adapted from the Seychelles Media Commission Code of Conduct, the BBC Editorial Guidelines, the National Public Radio (US) Ethics guide, and The Guardian’s Editorial Code. For election coverage, the Principles for Broadcast Coverage of Elections in the SADC Region were used.