CITIZEN JOURNALISTS (M) SDN. BHD.
Terms and Conditions of Membership
CJ.MY is a portal owned by Citizen Journalists (M) Sdn Bhd (CJM) and located at www.cj.my and other urls, mobile apps, iframes, widgets and digital applications that may show the same display and/or the same content as CJ.MY, collectively defined as the CJ.MY platform.
The portal serves as the publishing platform for members of CJ.MY and for other news content, opinions, notices and advertising in line with the vision of CJM:
Vision
Citizen Journalists Malaysia is a platform for citizens to participate in the news gathering process, by producing and developing content whilst adhering to the highest standard of journalism, pertaining to issues on positive changes in the local community, freedom of speech, social justice and democracy in Malaysia.
Missions
- Ensure that every citizen journalist trained by Citizen Journalists Malaysia takes ownership of the vision statement
- Encourage citizen journalists to highlight local community issues and stories often ignored by mainstream media, thereby providing a voice to the voiceless
- Continuously train its citizen journalists on good journalism works by adhering to the highest standards of ethics to maintain the credibility of citizen journalists
- Adopt new technology online and offline to promote fast, efficient and credible reporting
- Develop strategies to ensure the sustainability of CJ.MY
1.0 Membership
By applying to be a member, the member agrees to uphold the vision and missions of CJ.MY portal guided and to abide by the following terms and conditions.
1.1 Members are independent volunteer citizen journalists may present themselves as media reporters for the CJ.MY platform.
1.2 Members are not entitled to any pay or compensation of any kind from CJM as a result of their membership and/or as a result of their successful completion of training.
1.3 Members are not entitled to any medical insurance, unemployment benefits, retirement benefits or any other benefits other than those offered and defined by CJM from time to time.
1.4 Membership of CJ.MY portal does not constitute membership of any society, organisation or any relationship with CJM nor grant members any voting rights outside clause 7.1.
1.5 Members shall be given access to media credentials, training facilities, news gathering equipment and technology and other facilities made available by CJM for the purpose of news gathering and publishing.
1.6 CJM may invite good standing and committed members who has reached the highestmembership level to become shareholders of CJM.
2.0 Membership Application Criteria
2.1 Application for CJ basic training shall be via www.cj.my/register or other designated urls where applicants shall declare and certified that all information provided therein in the application are accurate and truthful to the best of the Applicant’s ability and knowledge.
2.2 Applicant shall be offered membership status after having completed the following basic requirements:
- Satisfactorily completed the basic CJ training program and assignments conducted and approved by CJM
- Paid any stipulated fees
3.0. Membership Level Eligibility
Level 4: Rookie CJ (entry level)
- Must have attended basic citizen journalist training.
- Will need to undergo six months of probationary period
- Must consistently produced a minimum of 2 stories/news articles or a video story per month, whichever applicable, during the probationary period shall thereon be considered for promotion to Level 3 – a CJ
Level 3: Citizen Journalist (CJ)
- Has been consistently submitting a minimum of 2 stories or 1 video story per month, whichever applicable , for over a period of 12 months
- Has attended a minimum of 1 Advance Citizen Journalism training conducted and/or approved by CJM will thereon be considered for promotion to Level 2, Pro CJ.
Level 2: Professional Citizen Journalist (Pro CJ)
- Has consistently submitting 2 written stories/news articles or 1 video story per month over the last 12 months.
- Has attended 1 Advance Citizen Journalism training conducted and/or approved by CJM
- To be considered for promotion to Level 1, an Editor, one has to be a Pro CJ (Level 2) for a minimum period of 6 months.
Level 1: Editor
- Has been a CJ for a minimum of 24 months.
- Has submitted a minimum of 150 written stories/news or 75 video stories over the last 24 months.
- Has attended a minimum of 4 Advance Citizen Journalism trainings conducted and/or approved by CJM.
4.0 Rights to Restructure Membership Level
CJM reserves the right to change the nomenclature of the membership levels, the requirements for membership at any level, and the rights and privileges of any membership level at any time and without prior notice.
5.0 Inactive Member
5.1. A member shall be deemed as inactive member if the member has not contributed content for over a period of 3 months, or submitted less than 6 stories per calendar year.
5.2 Any member who has been classified as an Inactive Member thereafter shall not be privy to nor enjoy any benefits accorded to an active member including but not limited to participating in any and/or all CJM organised trainings, functions and activities.
5.3 Inactive member and/or whose membership has been suspended revoked or members who have resigned shall undertake to duly return all loaned equipment and/or properties of CJM within THREE working days of being notified to the stipulated CJM regional office.
6.0 Termination of Membership
6.1 CJM reserves the right to immediately terminate the membership of any member who is found to have knowingly and willingly disseminates any information that is false, libelous, or defamatory to individuals, corporations, governments, or any other entity.
6.2 CJM reserves the right to immediately terminate the membership of any member who is found to have knowingly and willingly plagiarizes the writing of any other person.
6.3 Any decision to offer, suspend or revoke a membership or change the member’s status shall be the prerogative of CJM.
6.4 Any decisions made by CJM shall not be disputed by members, outside the recourse set herein.
7.0 Management Committee
7.1 Members shall elect or form a Management Committee to liaise with CJM on all issues related to CJ.MY where all inactive and suspended members will not be allowed to partake in this process.
8.0 Duties and Responsibilities of Members
8.1 CJ do not pursue and report matters for personal gain and/or for personal agendas nor undertakes to invade the personal privacy on any matter not in the public interest.
8.2 In carrying out its journalism pursuit, CJs shall adhere to the CJMY Reporting Guide included here as Appendix A.
8.3 Members cannot bind CJM to any contract or obligation of any kind, unless specified through a prior written contract between Member and CJM. Members shall not make use of CJM or CJ.MY name, corporate URL, copyrights, designs, logos, trade names, and trademark names(s), graphics, product images or names, and information without written authorisation from CJM.
8.4 Members shall not employ the use of any false, deceptive, hypothetical, or misleading claims regarding CJM or CJMY. Members making legitimate and permissible use of the CJMY logo on websites, web logs, or other digital media shall make that logo a hyperlink to www.cj.my.
9.0 Duties and Responsibities of CJM
9.1 CJM will maintain the CJ.MY portal and platform with information, training modules, resources, links and other materials relevant to the interests and activities of the members.
9.2 CJM undertakes to use its objectivity and transparent criteria in all its decision making processes.
9.3 CJM will provide all its active CJ.MY members and of good standing to access various member section of its www.cj.my website in accordance to the membership level of the respective member.
9.4 CJM will from time to time develop and make available to its members a variety of resources such as webinars, webcasts, white papers, digital communications, seminars, etc. where the various access will be in accordance to the membership level of the respective member.
9.5 CJM reserves the right to charge for services and resources above and beyond those listed in the various membership levels.
9.6 CJM will not sell, rent or otherwise distribute the names, addresses, phone numbers or email addresses of its members to any other entity or individual.
9.7 CJM at its sole discretion reserves the right to add, delete, amend, modify these terms and conditions, including Appendixes from time to time without prior notification where it shall be updated in CJMY website and/or through official communication channels.
10.0 Content Rights of CJs
10.1 Any article, video or comment contributed (contributions) by a CJ shall be fairly and promptly considered for publishing by CJ.MY editors and to be guided by CJ Reporting Guide.
10.2 CJs have the right to proper feedback and guidance should its contributions be declined for publishing.
10.3 Upon publishing, all contributions are deemed permanently licensed to CJM for its use within the CJ.MY platform and such licensing rights are deemed irrevocable.
10.4 CJM shall require the express permission from the CJ for any syndication of any particular contribution by the CJ and shall agree to a profit sharing formula for such syndication.
10.5 CJM does not require the express permission from contributing members for syndicating members’ contributions as a collection of articles. Any revenue derived from such syndication and its uses for the operation of CJ.MY and it shall be announced to its members on a regular basis.
10.6 Members shall retain the right to license its contributions to third parties provided that such licensing is on a non-exclusive basis and does not infringe the licensing rights of CJM as described in clause 10.3.
10.7 Members who has licensed its contributions to third parties shall promptly inform CJM.
Appendix A
CJ Reporting Guide
1) Independence
Independence is the foundation of CJ.MY. All CJs are committed to achieving the highest standards of impartiality and strive to avoid knowingly and materially that mislead the readers.
2) Truth and Accuracy
CJs will seek to establish the truth of what transpired and are committed to achieving due accuracy in all its output. Accuracy is not simply a matter of getting facts right; when necessary CJs will need to weigh all the relevant facts and information to get at the truth. CJs’ output, as appropriate to its subject and nature, should be well sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested and to be presented in clear and precise language. CJs will strive to be honest and open about what they don’t know and to avoid unfounded speculations.
3) Impartiality
CJs will apply due impartiality to all its subject matter and will reflect a breadth and diversity of opinion across its output as a whole and over an appropriate period, so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly un-reflected or under-represented. CJs will be fair and open-minded when examining evidence and weighing material facts.
4) Editorial Integrity
CJ.MY is independent of outside interests and arrangements that could undermine editorial integrity. Readers should be confident that CJ.MY decisions are not influenced by outside interests, political or commercial pressures, or any personal interests.
5) Conflict of Interest
CJs will disclose conflicts of interest that affect, or could be seen to affect, the accuracy, fairness or independence of its journalism work. CJs will not improperly use its journalistic position for personal gain.
6) Public Interest
CJ.MY seek to report stories of significance to its readers. CJs will be rigorous in establishing the truth of the story and well informed when explaining it. CJ.MY specialize expertise will bring authority and analysis to the complex society which we live in.CJs shall ask searching questions of those who hold public office and others who are accountable, and provide a comprehensive forum for public debate.
7) Revisions and Editing
All contributions are subject to editing for space, clarity and conformity with CJ.MY house style and adhering to its vision statement. The editors reserve the right, when necessary, to request a revision or to incorporate revisions directly. Editors of CJ.MY has the final decision as whether to publish or not to publish a news contribution.
8 ) Fairness
CJ.MY output will be based on fairness, openness, honesty and straight dealing. Contributors and audiences will be treated with respect.
9) Privacy
CJ.MY will respect privacy and will not infringe it without strong compelling reason. Private behaviour, information, correspondence and conversation will not be brought into the public domain unless there is a public interest that outweighs the expectation of privacy.
10) Accountability
CJ.MY will be accountable to its readers and will deal fairly and openly with them. Readers continuing trust in CJ.MY is a crucial part of its relationship with the readers. CJ.MY will be open in acknowledging mistakes when they are made and encourage a culture of willingness to learn from them.
11) No Gift Policy
CJ.MY will adhere to a strict ‘no gift’ policy. Should CJs received a gift worth more than RM10 in the course of its work, the recipient CJ must immediately declare it to the nearest CJM regional office. These gifts will then be auctioned off at a CJ.MY event and all proceeds donated to a charitable organisation.
12) Contents
CJs will need to strive towards balanced and unbiased contribution. Attempts should be made to cover both sides of the story. Should CJs failed to receive any response for attempts made to provide balanced news-reporting, it should be stated clearly in the article and given equal prominence in the video produced.
CJs should observe all copyright regulations and give due credit for music or photographs used in its production.
CJs may send in contributions in the form of:
A) 500-word Article with at least 5 photographs in language one is most proficient in.
B) 6-minute Video with at least 3 photographs and 3 paragraphs write up. All videos must carry CJMY logo.
C) Photoblogs with 10 – 15 photographs with captions. Careful consideration must be given to sequencing of photographs.
CJM Board of Directors
