Transparent, accountable, and open: that is what any news publication, be it a  professional publication, a current events blog or a high school newspaper, should strive to be.

Since it began, the Kerronicle has always tried to maintain these journalistic values.

To be transparent, we clearly distinguish between those articles in which staff expresses their opinions  and those articles in which an objective view of events or issues is pursued.

We also understand that there are times when we make mistakes, and thus we hold ourselves accountable when we make them. When we find out that we’ve made an error, we try to correct it soon as we can online, and if the error is significant, we acknowledge it in the following print issue.

We also strive to be open. Through letter to the editors, we give the Kerr community a chance to express their own opinions on issues we discuss in our articles. If anyone feels that our content has a serious issue, we want them to address the issue directly with us through a letter to the editor. Though we are not able to publish every letter we receive, the entire staff reads every letter and discusses the issues brought up in them.

Recently we have taken the TAO of Journalism Pledge to further acknowledge our journalistic ethics.

The TAO pledge requires those publications and individuals who accept them to pursue the journalistic values we have already been striving to achieve.

When these values are violated, we expect the public to hold accountable those news publications that have done so; it is through public criticism that these violations are addressed.

The TAO pledge can apply to more than just print publications, however. We encourage that anyone who creates content relating to current events, whether through blogs or YouTube videos, to visit the TAO of Journalism website and take the TAO pledge to better not only our community’s public discourse, but also better the world’s journalistic discussion. Go to TAO of Journalism at http://taoofjournalism.org/.