Almost every semester, there comes a time when The Ticker publishes an article that somebody doesn’t like. It may be the subject of the story, the writer of the article or someone who feels they were left out of the piece when they were relevant.

When someone comes to The Ticker with a complaint about an article, our answer is nearly always the same: we apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you, but we cannot change our coverage.

As student journalists, we at The Ticker operate under the same laws and ethical codes as professional journalists, and we hold these ethics in high regard. In abiding by this code of ethics, we cannot remove or alter our coverage at the request of an article’s subject.

Part of this code of ethics is to never allow the subject of news coverage to intimidate the writers or staff and influence coverage. Just because someone doesn’t want a story to come out, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t. In fact, in most cases it’s stories that people want to hide that are the most impactful.

Therefore, if someone requests a story to be taken down from our website or asks to have their name removed from the article, it is our obligation to keep the story up to serve transparently to our readers and community.

Journalism ethics state that a story should only be taken down if it is untrue.

Our writers report the facts. Our editors edit for clarity. As long as our coverage is honest and well-intentioned, stories will not be taken down.

There have been instances when former Undergraduate Student Government members have done something to garner negative media attention — whether through resigning from their elected position, making an inappropriate remark or using a gray area of the USG Constitution to hold two positions at once — and then have requested The Ticker not report on it.

We are Baruch College’s student newspaper. If something happens in our student government or regarding our elected student leaders, we are going to cover it.

The subject of the media attention, whether individuals and campus organizations, are not able to force The Ticker to remove an article due to our First Amendment right to freedom of the press.

Thus, we are under no obligation to take down an article based on individual requests. Our content is at the discretion of our masthead, and we are the ones who get the final say on what stories get published and which are cut.

The Ticker never sets out to put anyone — student or otherwise — in a negative light, but if something within our school community happens, it is our obligation as the news outlet serving this community to report on it. Even if this means reporting on unkind words said at student government meetings or the resignation of our representatives, it must be done.

People deserve to know what is going on in their community, especially if it relates to a public figure, such as an elected official. They deserve to have a trustworthy publication they rely on to get their information from.

If The Ticker caved and allowed outside sources to dictate our coverage, we would lose our credibility as an independent organization. Our viewers would never know if a story was true or if it was altered by the people involved to reflect the version of events that puts them in a favorable light.

Thus, we do not take factually correct stories off our website for any reason.

If you notice a factual inaccuracy in any of our articles, please reach out to us to correct the error and we will fix it on our website promptly. During print production, we also include correction boxes to take accountability for mistakes.

We do our best to report accurately, but sometimes slip ups do happen and we take accountability for all of these mistakes.

If you, or someone you know, find yourself the subject of unwanted media attention from The Ticker, there are a few acts of recourse that you can take.

You can reach out to the editor of the section that the article was published in and provide them with a statement sharing your side, which you would probably be asked to do before the initial article is published anyway, to include in the next article on the subject or in the original article.

Another thing you can do is write a letter to the editor to give your side of the story. This would be published in the opinions section and would only be minimally edited for clarity, grammar and style. Your letter can even be hyperlinked in an editor’s note to the original article that you find offensive to ensure more people see it.

If you have a problem with The Ticker, your best course of action is to write about it in a letter to The Ticker.