**Effective Date:** 15 October 2025
**Last Updated:** 15 October 2025
NewscrackersNG believes in fair and balanced reporting. As part of that commitment, we provide a **Right of Reply** to individuals, organizations, or entities that are subjects of our news coverage. This means if we publish content that portrays you in a critical or potentially negative light, you have an opportunity to present your response or perspective.
**Who Can Invoke Right of Reply?**
– Any person or representative of an organization specifically mentioned or directly implicated in a NewscrackersNG article has the right to respond. This includes, for example, someone accused of wrongdoing in our report, or an organization whose policy or actions we scrutinized.
– The reply must relate to the content we published. (General grievances not tied to a particular article are handled as feedback, not formal replies.)
**How to Submit a Reply:**
If you feel you were unfairly portrayed or not given a chance to comment in our story:
– **Email us:** rightofreply@newscrackersng.com
– **Subject line:** “Right of Reply – [Article Title]” (or include the URL of the story).
– **Include in your email:** Your full name (and title/organization if applicable), the article in question (title/URL), and your response or clarification. If it’s lengthy, you may attach it as a document.
– Alternatively, you can reach out through our Contact page or call our editorial desk at +234 706 140 2861 (during business hours) to inform us you wish to submit a reply. We will still ask for a written statement for accuracy.
**Our Process Upon Receiving a Reply:**
1. **Verification:** We will verify the identity of the sender to ensure the reply is genuinely from the affected party or their authorized representative. (We want to avoid publishing false replies from impersonators.)
2. **Review:** Our editors will review the reply for:
– **Relevance:** It must address the specific content of our article.
– **Civility:** We understand replies might be passionate, but we cannot publish libel, personal threats, or obscene language. We may ask you to revise overly abusive language while keeping your point intact.
– **Clarity and Length:** If the reply is very long or unclear, we may suggest edits for brevity or clarity (we will not change your message’s core content). We might work with you to hone the message so that readers can easily understand your points.
3. **Publication:** If the reply meets the above criteria, we will publish it prominently. Depending on the situation, we may:
– Update the original article with the responding statements (e.g., adding your perspective in the body or as an addendum).
– **Or** publish a standalone “Right of Reply” article, clearly linked from the original piece for context.
In either case, we will mark it clearly as a reply/response. For example, we might add an editor’s note in the original story: “**[UPDATE – Right of Reply]:** [Name] has responded to this story, stating that… [summary].”
We aim to publish valid replies as soon as possible – typically within 24–48 hours of receiving them (often sooner if straightforward).
4. **Post-Publication:** We give your reply similar visibility and weight as the original story. If the original was front-page news, the reply will be accessible alongside it (via link or follow-up piece).
**Important Notes:**
– A Right of Reply is **not an automatic retraction**. Your reply will be presented as *your perspective*. We do not remove our original content unless it was proven false (in which case a correction or retraction would apply). Instead, both versions (our report and your reply) will coexist for readers to consider.
– The reply should stick to the facts or address the specific issues raised. It’s not an opportunity for fresh unrelated attacks. We reserve the right to refuse publishing a reply that contains defamatory allegations against a third party or violates our content standards (e.g., hate speech). We’ll work with you to focus the response if needed.
– If multiple affected parties request to reply (say our story involved two organizations and both want to respond), we will endeavor to give space to all sides fairly.
– If your reply points out a factual error on our part, we will correct the article per our Corrections Policy, in addition to publishing your comments. (Correcting the record remains our responsibility.)
**Examples of Right of Reply in action:**
– If we publish an investigation into “Company X” alleging financial impropriety, and Company X’s CEO sends us a detailed rebuttal, we will publish that rebuttal so readers see their side of the story – either appended to the original or as a separate piece.
– If an individual is named in an article about a controversy and believes they were mischaracterized or not fully heard, we welcome their written response to include their perspective.
This policy ensures our reporting remains fair and that subjects of our stories have a channel to be heard. In fact, we strive to seek comment **before** publication – typically, we reach out to all major subjects of a report during writing. But if for any reason you did not get a chance to comment beforehand, this post-publication channel is available.
**Contact for Replies:** rightofreply@newscrackersng.com (this goes directly to our Editorial desk). For general inquiries about this policy, you can also contact editorial@newscrackersng.com.
Allowing responses not only upholds fairness but also enriches the public record with all relevant information. Thank you for engaging with NewscrackersNG – we are committed to hearing all sides.
*– NewscrackersNG Editorial Team*
