CNS Content Submission Policy and Agreement

Citizen journalists, bloggers or voluntary community correspondents from different backgrounds are encouraged to submit news feature articles, based upon interviews (opinionated articles should be avoided) with key affected populations and other stakeholders, on health and development issues, to Citizen News Service (CNS), by email to: editor@citizen-news.org . But before submitting, please read the CNS Content Submission Policy and Agreement, because sending your article to editor@citizen-news.org (or to any of CNS core-team members) means that you agree to the following CNS Content Submission Policy and Agreement:

By submitting your article or news features ("Content") to Citizen News Service (CNS), Author or Contributor ("You") agrees to these terms and conditions ("Agreement").

CNS reserves the right to change all or any part of this Agreement at any time. If Author or Contributor does not agree, then Author must not submit any Content to CNS. We ask that you read the terms of this Agreement with CNS carefully.

You agree that:
  • You have the full power and authority to enter into this Agreement;
  • You are the copyright owner of the news or feature article or photographs, and all due informed consent was taken with every person interviewed/ photographed for your article (including informing the person interviewed that this will be published through CNS and other channels); 
  • Your Content is well-written and devoid of grammatical, spelling, punctuation, and other language errors; please ensure the terminologies used in news or feature articles are rights-based and respectful (for HIV related terminologies, CNS uses UNAIDS' Terminology Guidelines, please follow it).
  • The Content (including photographs) you submit for publication on CNS will not violate or infringe the rights, including intellectual property rights, of any person or third party;
  • Submission of any Content to CNS does not in any way guarantee that Content will be published or will appear on the website and/or be syndicated through CNS;
  • CNS can delete any Content at any time, without any notice to the Author;
  • Your news or feature article must be positive, evidence-based and factual. It should not promote hatred, racism, bigotry, or contain libelous, defamatory, illegal, violent, harmful, obscene, and/or sexual statements;
  •  Your news or feature article should not contain unfounded controversies, innuendoes, accusations, false claims and other unlawful and untruthful statements;
  • You will not submit any Content that contains any malicious (website- or software-related) code which may interrupt the normal operation of the website.
  • CNS reserves the right to reject any article for any reason;
  • You will disclose your true identity whenever asked, and not impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
  • CNS has no obligation to pay you a fee for publishing your article. If you are seeking payment for the use of your article, please do not submit your article to us. CNS is a network of voluntary citizen journalists who write on people-centric issues and it does not pay any contributor.
  •  CNS may publish advertisements on the page(s) containing your article;
  • CNS does not accept any responsibility or liability for the use or misuse of articles published on this website as all our Content is shared under Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License, and anyone is welcome to use it in part or full;
  • You grant CNS the worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive right to publish, translate and distribute the Content in any media in part or full; include the Content in advertising and promotion; include the Content in electronic, print, and non-print products anywhere in the world;
  • As an Author or Contributor, you agree to be bound by our Terms of Service and Disclaimer;
If you do not agree or are not clear about the above mentioned content submission policy and agreement of CNS, please do not send your article to editor@citizen-news.org (or any CNS team member) before clarifying and agreeing to the above stated agreement. Contact us at: editor@citizen-news.org with your doubt or point of clarification. Do not submit content unless you agree completely in spirit and in word with the above guidelines.

[Recommended link: How to become a CNS Correspondent?]