clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Readers' Comments & Social Media – Policy & Disclaimer

The purpose of our website(s) and social media presence is to inform readers and supporters about news from the Middle East that the larger media outlets conveniently “overlook”. We encourage readers and supporters to engage with one another, and of course, take part in the discussions ourselves.

But since many of the topics that we report on and comment upon are controversial and can evoke passionate, and sometimes inappropriate, responses, we decided to put together a few guidelines that we will follow, and a few guidelines that we hope you will follow.

These guidelines apply to Readers’ Comments on our website and on our official Social Media pages (in addition to any Terms of Use those sites may have).

What we will do

To the best of our abilities:

  • we will be honest in everything we write and publish
  • we will be open to discussions, and so will not ban anyone or delete comments simple because we disagree
  • we will remain civil and courteous in our posts and responses
  • we won’t edit your comments, but may prevent the publishing of, delete parts of, or in the case of social media pages, report it to the website’s administrators if they breach these guidelines
  • we will delete posts and even ban users (where possible) who repeatedly violate this policy

What we ask of you

  • Don’t be a “prune” – Treat people well. No racist, homophobic, sexist, agist, abusive or otherwise discriminatory comments. No personal attacks. No incitements to violence. No foul language.
  • Don’t “hijack” the thread – Please stay on topic, and don’t post comments and links to something that is unrelated to the discussion.
  • Don’t be “that guy” – You know, the one who hogs the conversation. Don’t be that person who has to have the first and last word in everything. It discourages others from taking part, and more often than not, harms the very point you’re trying to make.
  • Don’t spam – we are a platform for news from and about the Middle East, not an advertisement board for your birthday party or event :). We have an absolute zero-tolerance policy on spam.
  • Do use the “Report this comment” link to report comments that violate this policy
  • If you’ve been banned, please don’t try to come back with another account. It’s not a good look for anyone.

And just to summarise…

We do not accept any responsibility for any statement or comment posted on our website(s) or our social media pages. Any statement or comment posted on these platforms does not necessarily represent the views of the Middle East Monitor, unless where specifically stated otherwise.

We reserve the right to unpublish, or delete parts or the entirety of any comments that breaches these guidelines, or is otherwise deemed to be non-conducive to the discussion.