By Dylan Stableford on Yahoo News, July 14 – A week after issuing a memo warning staffers not to express their opinions on Facebook and Twitter, the Associated Press sent an updated copy of social media guidelines to its global news staff.
The new guidelines include “an elaboration of our policies on expressing personal opinions on social networks,” Tom Kent, the AP’s deputy managing editor for standards and production, wrote in the memo. “Just as social media and its uses continue to evolve, so will our policies related to this topic.”
From the updated “Opinion” section:
Everyone who works for AP must be mindful that opinions he or she expresses may damage the AP’s reputation as an unbiased source of news. AP employees must refrain from declaring their views on contentious public issues in any public forum and must not take part in demonstrations in support of causes or movements. This includes liking and following pages and groups that are associated with these causes or movements.