DNPA Code of Ethics

What the DNPA Code is

The Digital News Publishers Association, usually shortened to DNPA, is an industry association of Indian digital news publishers. It has published a Digital Code of Ethics, a voluntary code of ten principles covering legal compliance, journalistic standards, accuracy, the right of reply, take-down and editing of inaccurate content, intellectual property, crime and sensational reporting, sensitive subjects, grievance redressal and staff training.

A statement of adherence, not a claim of membership. Peoples Feed is not a member of the Digital News Publishers Association. We publish this page because we choose to hold ourselves to the DNPA Digital Code of Ethics as a published industry standard, alongside the Code of Ethics that already binds us under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. If we ever join the DNPA, this page will say so, with the date. Until then, please read this as a voluntary commitment we can be held to, not as a badge.

The authoritative text of the DNPA Digital Code of Ethics is published by the association itself. What follows is a summary of each principle and, against each one, exactly what we do about it.

The ten principles, and what we do about each

1. Compliance with the law of the land

The principle: members adhere to the Constitution of India and the laws that govern media, including the Indian Penal Code and its successor legislation, the Code of Criminal Procedure and its successor legislation, and the Information Technology Act, 2000.

What we do: we publish from India, under Indian law. We comply with Part III of the IT Rules, 2021, we have a named Grievance Officer based in India, and we publish our ownership, our GST registration and our registered address. We do not publish content prohibited under any law for the time being in force.

2. Accepted norms of journalistic ethics and practice

The principle: members diligently adhere to accepted norms of journalistic ethics and maintain the highest standards of professional conduct.

What we do: our standards are written down and public in our Editorial Policy and our Fact-Checking Policy, so that they can be checked against what we actually publish. Every article carries a named human byline and is approved by a named editor.

3. Accuracy, transparency and fairness

The principle: content is verified before publication, and defamation is to be avoided.

What we do: nothing is published until it has been traced to a primary document a human opened. Every article carries at least three primary sources, and we link the original document rather than another outlet’s version of it. Every number has its source named in the text. We do not state an allegation as a fact, in the article, the headline, the meta description, the caption or the alt text. Where we cannot verify a fact about a living person, we leave it out.

4. Right of reply

The principle: where an article contains allegations, the response of the person or institution concerned should be included, and an update requested by the party concerned should be carried, with the date noted.

What we do: our right of reply rule is mandatory, not discretionary. Where an article carries an allegation, an inquiry, a criticism of professional conduct, a number contradicting one the subject published, or a third-party claim about them, we write to the official address with the specific claims and a stated deadline of at least 24 hours for a news story and at least 72 hours for a profile or an investigation. The reply goes in the same section as the claim, not at the bottom. If we did not ask, we do not publish the claim. Where a reply arrives after publication we add a dated update note and quote it in the same section.

5. Take down or edit of content shown to be false

The principle: content shown to be false or inaccurate should be edited or removed when a verified request is made by the affected party with supporting documentation.

What we do: we act on documents, not on pressure. Send the document to corrections@peoplesfeed.in and we assess it within three working days, and usually fix a confirmed error the same day it is confirmed. We use a four-step ladder: typo, clarification, correction, retraction. A retracted article is replaced by a retraction notice at the same URL rather than deleted, so that everyone who saw the original can find the correction. We do not delete quietly and we do not rewrite silently. See the Public Corrections Policy, which carries a permanent public log.

6. Intellectual property rights

The principle: copyright, trade marks and service marks require prior permission, and fees are to be paid where required.

What we do: every image we publish is licensed, openly licensed with the licence recorded on file, supplied with written permission, or created by us, and the credit appears in the caption. We do not lift text from other publications. Where another outlet broke a story we are following, we say so by name and link to them. Quotes from another outlet’s interview are attributed to that outlet with the date. Copyright complaints go to grievance@peoplesfeed.in and are acknowledged within 24 hours.

7. Reporting of crime and avoidance of sensationalism

The principle: the presumption of innocence must be preserved, and reporting should be fact-based and unbiased.

What we do: an FIR is not a conviction. A charge sheet is not a conviction. A notice is not a finding. We name the stage of the proceeding and the document, and we write that an agency “filed a charge sheet on [date] alleging X”, never that X did it. A denial appears in the same section as the allegation. We do not use clickbait headline constructions, and we maintain a banned list of sensational and garland words that no Peoples Feed headline may contain.

8. Sensitive subjects

The principle: particular care is required in reporting sexual harassment, child abuse, rape, matrimonial disputes, riots and communal conflict, and the provisions of the IT Act, 2000 on obscene material must be observed.

What we do: we do not name or make identifiable any person under 18 in connection with a crime, a court matter, a medical case, an examination failure or a family dispute. We do not identify survivors of sexual offences. We do not describe any person by caste, religion or region in a headline or in body text unless that is the literal subject of the reported act, and then in the official wording, attributed. We do not publish private life, health, family, finances or sexual orientation unless it is demonstrably part of the public act being reported. We publish no obscene material.

9. Grievance redressal

The principle: members follow the grievance mechanism under the IT Act, 2000, including the appointment of a grievance officer with a defined response time.

What we do: our Grievance Officer is Dr. Mayank Raj, at grievance@peoplesfeed.in, based in India, with the postal address and phone number published. Under Rule 11 of the IT Rules, 2021 we acknowledge every grievance within 24 hours and decide it within 15 days. We publish a monthly report of grievances received and disposed of. The full three-tier process, including how to escalate, is on our Grievance Redressal page.

10. Training and awareness

The principle: members conduct training and awareness programmes on constitutional and media law, defamation, intellectual property and the reporting of sensitive subjects.

What we do: we are a small newsroom, so we will describe this honestly rather than dress it up. Every person who writes for Peoples Feed works to a single written prompt and rulebook that encodes the living-person rules, the sourcing hierarchy, the right of reply procedure and the banned-word lists, and is required to record the verification checks for every article before it is filed. The Editor reviews those records. We hold a standards review at least twice a year, in which every correction and grievance from the period is read as a case study, and we update the rulebook from it. Where a new legal development affects us, for example a change to the DPDP Rules, we circulate a written note before the next publishing day.

Where our own standards go further than the Code

  • The right of reply is mandatory, not encouraged. A claim without one is removed or the article is held.
  • Minimum source counts are fixed by article shape, from three sources for a brief to eight for a guide, with at least three primary in every case, and at least one source independent of the subject in a profile.
  • Primary documents are linked, never a secondary account of them.
  • Our corrections log is public and permanent, and a retraction keeps its URL.
  • Our AI position is published and restrictive. AI assists our workflow. Every article is verified and approved by a named human editor, AI is never a source, AI never gets a byline, and we do not publish AI-generated photographs of real people. See our Editorial Policy.
  • We do not publish a living person’s private contact details in any circumstances.
  • We state plainly that coverage cannot be bought, and we publish what is and is not for sale on our Ownership and Funding page.

Holding us to this

If you believe we have breached any principle on this page, write to our Grievance Officer at grievance@peoplesfeed.in. We acknowledge within 24 hours and decide within 15 days, and every decision letter tells you how to escalate. If the issue is a factual error, corrections@peoplesfeed.in is faster.

Related pages

Effective date: 11 September 2026
Last updated: 11 September 2026