We want equalityhumanrights.com to be a place for freely expressed opinions and open debate. We therefore strive to keep moderation and intervention to a minimum. We encourage different opinions and welcome dissent and lively discussion, and we want to encourage as many people as possible to get involved in what we're doing
However, we want this site to be an area where everyone feels welcome, and therefore we do monitor all comments that are posted. Occasionally we will step in to prevent abuse and maintain an atmosphere in which debate can thrive. Where necessary, we reserve the right to edit or remove comments.
The following guidelines illustrate how we make moderation decisions on comments posted here:
1. Libel, defamation and other legal issues
We will remove any comments which break the law, including contempt of court and incitement of racial or religious hatred.
2. Copyright
Don't copy and paste content that you don't own the copyright for. You can usually quote people, but make clear that is what you are doing.
3. Offence
It is hard to create an exact definition of what is offensive, and we will not try to. Neither will we be squeamish about letting others say things that may be considered offensive by some. But where a comment is insulting or derogatory, we will remove it. This includes racism, sexism and homophobia, which will not be tolerated. We encourage posters to direct any criticism they may have towards the content of the article: comments should not be personal attacks on the author.
4. Spam
Comments which appear to be aimed at selling or marketing products or services will be removed.
5. Relevance
Stay on-topic and make your responses specific to the issues raised in articles. In order to avoid confusion, and to keep the debate focused, we will remove any posts which are entirely unrelated to an article.
6. Length
We have a technical word-limit of around 500 words but keeping responses considerably shorter than this is generally a good idea. We reserve the right to edit comments for length.
If you feel that we have missed any comments that should be moderated, please let us know.