ਸੰਪਾਦਕੀ ਸੁਤੰਤਰਤਾ

Trust in a publication begins with knowing who stands behind it and who cannot direct it. This page states both. “We” means Northview Productions Inc., a British Columbia company doing business as Kalam Di Goonj (“the Company”).

1. Ownership

Kalam Di Goonj is published by Northview Productions Inc., incorporated in British Columbia and based in Surrey, BC. The Publication has no other owner, silent stakeholder, political patron, or governmental sponsor. If ownership or control materially changes, this page changes with it.

2. No political affiliation

The Company and the Publication are affiliated with no political party in Canada, India, Pakistan, or elsewhere. We take no direction from parties, politicians, governments, or political movements. We accept no payment or favour for political coverage, and we endorse no candidates. We are independent and non-partisan.

Two clarifications:

• Non-partisan does not mean viewless. Our opinion pages carry writers with convictions, labelled as opinion and chosen for quality and range rather than allegiance. We hold ourselves to accuracy, fairness, and context. We do not claim to stand outside all perspective.
• Independence does not mean silence. We criticize any party, government, or institution where the facts warrant it, and all of them where they all warrant it.

3. How we are funded

Kalam Di Goonj is reader-supported, combining free and paid content, with paid subscriptions (ਸਰਪ੍ਰਸਤੀ, patronage memberships) as the intended backbone. We carry no advertising and no sponsored content. If that changes:

• advertising, sponsorship, and any paid placement will be clearly labelled, so that paid material is always identifiable;
• advertisers and sponsors will not buy, shape, or veto coverage. There will be no story assignments from them, no prior review of editorial content, no favourable treatment for spenders, and no penalty for coverage they dislike.
• the detail will be set out in a dedicated Advertising & Sponsorship Disclosure page, which activates before the first paid placement appears.

Donations or grants, if accepted, will be disclosed on the same principle.

4. Separation of commerce and editorial

Commercial decisions, including pricing, subscriptions, and any future advertising, are kept separate from editorial decisions about what we publish and how. Editorial judgements are made by editors on editorial grounds under our Editorial Standards. No advertiser, sponsor, or commercial consideration participates in commissioning, editing, or withdrawing a piece. Subscription revenue buys access to our work, not influence over it, and membership earns no more favourable coverage than anyone else receives.

5. Conflicts of interest

Our editors, writers, and contributors must disclose personal, financial, family, organizational, and political interests touching what they cover. Depending on the conflict, we disclose it to readers alongside the piece, reassign the work, or both. Conflicts that disclosure cannot cure are cured by reassignment. Gifts, paid travel, and favours that could reasonably be seen to influence coverage are refused. The detailed rules are in our internal conflicts policy. The commitment to you is that where a piece has an interest behind it, you will be told.

6. Election periods

During election and referendum periods, in any jurisdiction we cover:

• we continue normal journalism, including reporting, analysis, fact-checking, and labelled opinion about parties, candidates, and issues;
• we do not publish endorsements of candidates or parties, run political advertising without the labelling and legal review our policies require, or coordinate coverage with any campaign;
• candidate voices are handled with heightened attention to fairness and balance across the field, under our internal election-period procedures;
• we observe applicable election-advertising and third-party rules under Canadian and BC election law, which are drafted broadly enough to require care from publishers. Our internal procedures make that care systematic.

7. Authors’ views are their own

We publish many voices, chosen for quality and honesty rather than agreement with us. Published views are the author’s or speaker’s own, and publication does not imply endorsement by the Company or the Publication. This applies with particular force to opinion pieces, letters, interviews, translations, and archival works. Carrying a voice is not adopting it.

8. Review of this statement

This page is reviewed at least annually and whenever the underlying facts change, including ownership, funding model, the introduction of advertising, or affiliation. Material changes are made visibly. If you believe we have breached a commitment on this page, our Complaints process is open. Complaints about independence go to the Editor-in-Chief and, where the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, to the Director.

9. Limits of this page

• It does not mean our writers hold no opinions. It means no party or payer directs them, and opinion is labelled as opinion.
• It does not mean we will never carry advertising. It means that if we do, it will be labelled and it will buy no influence.
• It states standing commitments rather than contractual terms, and it does not restrict lawful commercial operations, including subscriptions, pricing, and promotion of our own publication, conducted outside editorial decision-making.