Code Of Ethics
Bollywood Halchal (“Bollywoodhalchal/ We”) is committed to responsible digital publishing and prides itself in its responsible, honest, objective and fair pursuit of facts, without any partisan, sectarian or political affiliation.
We follow the laws of the land including the Constitution of India, laws relating to the media organizations, relevant provisions of IPC as well as the Information Technology Act, 2000, wherever applicable.
We ensure that our public, online & professional conduct and the Content published on Bollywood Halchal is in accordance with:
Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India under the Press Council Act, 1978.
Programme Code under section 5 of the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995.
Generally accepted norms of journalistic ethics and practices and we strive to uphold the highest standards of professional conduct expected of journalists.
Further we ensure that any content which is prohibited under any law for the time being in force is not be published or transmitted on Bollywood Halchal.
This Code of Ethics is a binding commitment for all employees of Bollywood Halchal and they acknowledge and understand this Code and commit to avoid doing anything that violates its principles.
All the content that is published on Bollywood Halchal including by guests and contributors is put through the highest standards of professional due diligence, rigour, accuracy, fairness and integrity that this Code demands including observing the following principles:
Accuracy, Transparency & Fairness: We eschew publication of inaccurate, baseless, graceless, misleading or distorted content and ensure that all sides of the subject being published is reported. We ensure that unjustified rumours and surmises are not set forth as facts in our content by doing pre-publication verification of the content to be published.
Discrimination: Bollywood Halchal will not publish offensive, biased references to a person’s religion, caste, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability, unless directly & materially relevant to the story to be published.
Right of reply: We are committed to publish the content without prejudice or malice and strive to give reasonable time and opportunity to respond to those who are being mentioned adversely in any of our content.
Plagiarism: We ensure that content sourced from other media sources or organisations is properly attributed and not plagiarised. Any lifting of text, quotes and images is done with proper attribution and images are not digitally altered without disclosure.
Special care and caution is exercised at all times while reporting on sensitive matters including communal or religious disputes/clashes. Such news items will be published only after a proper verification of facts and will be presented with due caution and restraint, ensuring an environment that is conducive to promoting communal harmony, amity and peace is maintained.
We don’t obtain information by blackmailing or threatening a source to part with information or by promising positive coverage to source in return for information.
Our employees do not use their press credentials to get out of situations where a law is broken.
Our employees do not accept favours, expensive gifts and hospitality from people or institutions we cover.
We are committed to minimise and correct errors that occur in our publications. If it is brought to our knowledge that any content including news report or article published on Bollywood Halchal contains false or inaccurate information, then on being approach by the aggrieved person & upon providing of correct information supported by relevant documents or material, we will make necessary changes/ correction to the relevant portion of the news report or article as may be required. If entire news report or article is found to contain false, inaccurate information, the entire news report or article will be deleted.
We respect Intellectual Property Rights of others and ensure:
If copyrighted material is used in content published on Bollywood Halchal, then prior permission is taken and publication acknowledges the ownership rights of copyright holder.
If permission for using copyrighted material requires payment of fee or royalty, the same will be paid.
Trade Marks of third parties will be used only with prior permission or only if such use constitutes fair use.
In case there is any inadvertent infringement of intellectual property rights in any of the content published – upon receipt of any request and after getting the necessary documents confirming such infringement, we will edit, delete or take down the concerned content as may be necessary.
We have established an appropriate Grievance Redressal Mechanism, in accordance with Rule 10 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics code) Rules, 2021 and any violation of this Code of Ethics is dealt as per the grievance redressal mechanism outlined at https://www.bollywoodhalchal.com/grievance-redressal.