Contributor charter

Who this charter is for

Anyone who offers text, a photograph, information or proofreading to AubeActu without being employed by it: village correspondents, occasional volunteers, associations sending in their minutes. It is accepted on registration and must be accepted again at each new version.

Your commitments

1. Write what you have verified. A factual claim rests on two independent sources or on a consultable primary source. You give the newsroom your sources, including those the article will not cite.
2. Write only what is yours. You take neither the text, nor the standfirst, nor the photographs of another outlet, website, press release or social media post. Copy-pasting, even in part, puts the newspaper in breach of copyright, and you with it.
3. Do not pass off generated text as your own. Such tools may help spot a story or transcribe a recording; they do not write the article.
4. Declare your connections. You tell the newsroom about any personal, family, professional, associative, financial or political connection with the subject. You do not cover an organisation you run, or an election you stand in.
5. Respect the presumption of innocence. An unconvicted person is a suspect or a defendant, never guilty. You publish neither their full name, nor their address, nor their employer.
6. Respect the people you photograph. You obtain the agreement of isolated recognisable individuals, and the written agreement of legal guardians for a minor.
7. Accept nothing in exchange for an article. No payment, gift or benefit from any person or organisation you cover.
8. Flag an error as soon as you become aware of it, including in an article you signed.

What the newspaper guarantees you

• Your byline. Your articles carry your name, and your profile is published on the Newsroom page.
• Editing, not arbitrary rewriting. A change that alters the meaning of your text is submitted to you before publication.
• A right to withdraw your byline if a published article no longer matches what you wrote.
• Reimbursement of expenses incurred at the newsroom's request, on production of receipts, under the association's rules.
• The newsroom's protection if an article it approved and published is challenged: the publication director is principal author of press offences, under article 93-3 of the French law of 29 July 1982.

What happens to what you write

You remain the author of your texts and photographs, and you keep your moral rights, which cannot be transferred.

For each contribution you submit, you grant AubeActu a non-exclusive licence to publish, reproduce and display it on the site, in the mobile application, and in the newspaper's feeds and newsletters, worldwide, for the statutory term of protection.

That licence is granted contribution by contribution, at the moment of each submission. Accepting this charter does not assign your future texts: article L131-1 of the French intellectual property code voids the global assignment of future works, and any mechanism claiming otherwise would have no effect.

You may republish your text elsewhere, crediting its first publication in AubeActu and waiting fifteen days after it appears.

Volunteering

Contributing is voluntary. It creates no relationship of subordination: you choose your subjects, your hours and your pace, and no consideration other than reimbursement of documented expenses is paid. Regular, directed and paid contribution would be an employment contract — which is why none of those three conditions is present here.

Ending the collaboration

You may stop contributing at any time, without notice and without giving reasons. Your published articles remain online under your name: they are part of the newspaper's archive. Your personal data is kept for the periods published in the privacy policy.

AubeActu may end the collaboration in the event of a breach of this charter, giving you its reasons in writing.

Changes to the charter

Every version of this charter is dated and kept. A new version is put to you for acceptance; until you accept it, your new contributions cannot be published, and your earlier contributions remain governed by the version you accepted.