Editorial Policy

The purpose of this document is to outline the principles, practices and policies Mimages upholds in delivering the highest standards of editorial integrity to our customers. As an editorial content provider, we recognize, respect and adhere to the ethical conduct acknowledged by both our industry and our peers. Mimages strives to achieve and support the high standards in photojournalism today through good judgment and a commitment to our editorial principles, practices and process.

Our Principles

We adhere to a common set of professional journalistic principles that guide our staff, our processes and our operations. We maintain an individual and collective responsibility to uphold these principles throughout our news organization.

Responsibility

We believe that photographs are the visual communication of a story and should be held to an equal level of accountability, responsibility and integrity as the written word in journalism. Images illustrate and reflect the events of our world today and therefore have a responsibility to be delivered to the customer with accuracy and impartiality.

Independence

Only our editorial staff will have control over the photojournalism process - from assignment to delivery. At no time do we permit non-editorial individuals or groups to have influence over our editorial coverage or workflow. Our editorial coverage is free of obligation and has no conflict of interest in its creation or production process.

Integrity

Integrity is the driving force behind all that we do and it is a founding principle of Mimages. We maintain the balance of an individual's right to privacy with our obligation to cover the story. Our commitment to integrity is reflected throughout our editorial workflow and our fair and unbiased coverage of the events and stories of today.

Our Practices

We have instituted clear and non-ambiguous practices to uphold our core principles. These practices comprise our code of conduct that is expected of all levels of editorial staff, photographers, contributors and partners of Mimages.

• Mimages photographers and staff maintain complete control over the gathering and distribution of editorial photos.
• Mimages will not accept special editorial access or privileges by virtue of Mimages’ commercial relationships.
• No photojournalist or editorial staff member will operate in a self-serving manner. No staff member shall let their personal opinions influence the coverage of stories or events, nor shall a third party be allowed to dictate or influence our editorial process.
• We will never censor our editorial coverage.
• All images will be credited to reflect the source. See photo credit details below.
• Post-editorial licensing of photos will be in accordance with news-industry standards.

Our Photo Credit Policies

Credit: Mimages

All images captioned with a credit 'Mimages' are the product of Mimages' complete editorial control.

Credit: (News Service)/Mimages

This credit is based on the long-standing wire service tradition of sharing the editorial process between established news organizations. This credit would only apply when the news service is a well-known and established party that already has an established reputation for following strict editorial procedures that are equivalent to the five key editorial steps followed by Mimages.

An example of this credit could include 'AP/Mimages' where the first named party is the verified editorial source of the news material and the second party is responsible for delivering the content to their respective news distribution service. In some cases this credit could appear as 'Mimages/(News Service)'. This credit indicates that Mimages is the originating party for news coverage and the news service is the distributing party.

Credit: Mimages for (Editorial Publication)

This credit is used when Mimages provides photo assignment services to editorial organizations.

Credit: (Outside Source) via Mimages

This credit conforms to a long-standing wire service tradition of providing access to 'handout' materials as a service to editorial clients. Following the generally accepted industry standards, these photos must be from a known source and should be relevant to the overall mission of the wire service.

Examples of valid outside sources include:

• Government handouts
• Movie stills
• Sporting event coverage
• Television screenshots
• Newsworthy content from verified third-party sources

Handout Images

Following the established wire service tradition for moving handouts on the wire, all handout images should be considered supplemental coverage where a Mimages photographer is not already available to supply photos, or where the content is provided by a third party that may retain their own rights to non-editorial uses of the images.