AFY Journalism

Newsroom Standards

新聞社守則
Applies to: every AFY Journalism reporter Reviewed: annually each August Advisor: Elena Ely

Two of the newsroom's standards are published here: the protocol every reporter signs before their first interview, and the standard that governs Chinese-language work. Both are draft operating standards, pending school review. The Editorial Policy — the formal statement of who decides what AFY Journalism publishes — is with the principal and will be posted once the editorial board is seated and it is adopted.

These standards govern the reporting, editing and publication carried out by the AFY Journalism Club. This website is the club's curriculum and resource hub, not the newspaper itself; any student work published here is identified as student journalism where it appears.

Ethics & Newsgathering Protocol

Status: Draft operating standard · pending school review · v1.0 · last updated 26 August 2026

Every AFY reporter signs this before conducting any interview, photograph, or community contact. The four gates are non-negotiable. The bilingual scripts apply when interviewing Chinese-speaking sources in the Sunset District or any AFY family member; reporters use the language the source prefers.

Gate 1Identification

Every interview begins with the reporter identifying themselves, their publication, the topic, and how the conversation may be used. An interview does not guarantee publication, and agreeing to be interviewed does not give a source the right to approve the finished story.

“Hi, I’m [name], and I’m a student reporter for the AFY Journalism Club. I’m writing a story for our school paper about [topic]. May I ask you a few questions? I’d be quoting you by name.”

您好，我叫 [姓名]，是 Alice Fong Yu 學校新聞社的學生記者。我正在為校報寫一篇關於 [主題] 的報導。請問我可以向您請教幾個問題嗎？我會在文章中具名引用您的話。

Gate 2Consent

Every source is told what they are agreeing to. Consent is recorded in the reporter’s interview log.

  • Publication. The source is told how their words may be used. Issue 1 is published in print and as a PDF sent to AFY families; from Issue 2, January 2027, the paper also publishes on this public website, and a source is asked separately about the website when a story may appear there. Not every interview produces a published story.
  • Attribution. Named attribution is the standard, and the source is told they will be quoted by name. Anonymity is not automatic: it is requested before publication and granted by the student editor and advisor only where being named would expose the source to real harm and the information cannot reasonably be obtained from a named source.
  • Minors outside AFY. A parent or guardian gives written consent before the interview begins. No exceptions.
  • AFY peers. The advisor maintains the media consent file and the club’s own publication consent roster; a reporter checks both before quoting or photographing a classmate.
  • Sensitive topics. If a story touches discipline, family circumstances, health, or immigration status, written consent is required in addition to verbal, and the student editor and advisor review the story before publication.
Gate 3Recording & Notes
  • Recording requires explicit permission from every participant, before recording starts — audio, video, telephone, meeting-platform or screen. Ask before pressing record. No covert recording, ever.
  • Notes are always taken even when audio is recording — in case the file fails.
  • Storage and handling. Recordings live on the club device or a club-managed account only, never on a personal phone or social media, and are not uploaded to any transcription, translation or AI service that is not school-approved. A lost device or file is reported to the advisor the same day.
  • Off-campus reporting requires an adult. Year 1 reporters do not interview off-campus alone, and a Year 3 mentor is not a substitute for an adult: either by phone or email with parent consent on file, in person with the advisor or another approved adult present, or in person at pickup with a parent present.
Gate 4Quote Verification & Translation Accuracy
  • Read back every direct quote at the end of the interview: “I have you saying X — is that right?” This is an accuracy check, not permission: a source may correct what they said, but may not rewrite or withdraw an accurate quote.
  • Translated quotes are flagged for the Bilingual Copy Editor before publication. The original-language quote is preserved in the interview log.
  • Cultural read. If a phrase is accurate in one language but would be misread in the other, the reporter notes it and consults the Bilingual Copy Editor rather than deciding alone.
  • No quote is invented, smoothed, or combined from multiple sentences. If a source rambles, paraphrase — do not fabricate a clean quote.
SafetyWhen something cannot stay in your notebook

Protecting a source does not mean keeping a secret about someone getting hurt. If anything in an interview suggests a person is being harmed, is hurting themselves, is being threatened, or is in danger, the reporter stops and tells the advisor the same day, and does not promise a source to keep it secret. That responsibility belongs to the advisor, not the reporter.

PhotographsAdditional standard
  • No photograph of an identifiable AFY student is published without a signed media consent on file and the family’s choice recorded on the club’s publication consent roster.
  • No identifiable photograph of a minor outside AFY is taken or published without written consent from a parent or guardian. Verbal permission is not sufficient for a photograph intended for publication.
  • Crowd and public-event photographs in which no minor is identifiable or the subject of the frame do not require individual consent; if a reporter is unsure whether a child is identifiable, the photograph is treated as identifiable.
  • Adult sources in commercial or public settings may be photographed with verbal permission, logged in the interview note.
  • Captions identify who, what and when — plus one detail not visible in the photograph.

Bilingual Editorial Standard

雙語出版標準

Status: Draft operating standard · pending school review · v1.0 · last updated 26 August 2026

AFY Journalism publishes in two languages. These are the standards that govern the Chinese-language half of the paper.

  • Traditional characters are the house standard. 繁體 is used for headlines, body text, captions, the masthead and section labels alike.
  • Chinese-language content is journalism, not translation. A Chinese article is reported, written and edited to the same standard as an English one — not produced by running an English article through a translator.
  • Nothing publishes in Chinese without a signed review. The Bilingual Copy Editor reviews every Chinese headline, body text and caption. If the reviewer is unavailable, the piece is held rather than published unreviewed.
  • Bilingual review covers language, cultural meaning and safety — accuracy, register and whether a phrase would be misread. It does not extend to a story’s viewpoint or conclusions, which belong to the student editorial board.
  • The original-language quote is preserved in the interview log, whatever language the story runs in, so a translated quote can always be checked against what the source actually said.
  • Machine translation may check a reporter’s own draft, using a school-approved tool only. It may not produce copy published as reporting, and it is never used on a quotation. Recordings, notes and identifiable source material are never uploaded to a translation tool.
  • Cultural read. Where a phrase is accurate in one language but would be misread in the other, the reporter flags it rather than resolving it alone.

AFY wrote this because the model policies available to scholastic programmes do not address bilingual publishing. It is reviewed each August alongside the rest of the newsroom’s standards.