Terms of use

Welcome to The Jersey Vindicator. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of The Jersey Vindicator’s website, newsletters, digital services, mobile services, social media accounts, and other online platforms (collectively, the “Services”).

By accessing or using our Services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use our Services.

About us

The Jersey Vindicator is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing investigative, accountability, and public service journalism for the people of New Jersey.

Our journalism is guided by our ethics & editorial standards and related editorial policies, which are available on our website.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms periodically to reflect changes in our operations, technology, or applicable law.

If we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Your continued use of our Services after revised Terms become effective constitutes your acceptance of those changes.

Acceptable use

You agree to use our Services lawfully, respectfully, and in a manner consistent with these Terms.

You may not:

  • Violate any applicable law or regulation.
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems, accounts, or networks.
  • Disrupt or interfere with the operation, security, or availability of our Services.
  • Introduce malicious software, viruses, ransomware, or harmful code.
  • Use automated tools to interfere with our website or degrade its performance.
  • Impersonate another individual or organization.
  • Submit knowingly false information, fabricated documents, or fraudulent news tips.
  • Use our Services in a manner that infringes the rights of others.
  • Circumvent or attempt to bypass security measures implemented to protect our Services.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access to our Services when necessary to protect our website, our readers, our staff, or our organization, or in response to violations of these Terms.

Automated access and artificial intelligence

We recognize that search engines, accessibility technologies, academic researchers, and other legitimate automated tools play an important role in helping people discover and use journalism.

However, you may not use bots, automated tools, artificial intelligence systems, web crawlers, or similar technologies to systematically scrape, copy, archive, reproduce, extract, or create competing products or services from substantial portions of our content without our prior written permission, except as permitted by applicable law.

Nothing in this section is intended to restrict activities protected by law, including fair use, legitimate search engine indexing, accessibility technologies, academic research, or other lawful uses.

Intellectual property

Unless otherwise indicated, all articles, investigations, photographs, videos, graphics, illustrations, databases, logos, designs, software, and other content published by The Jersey Vindicator are protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable intellectual property laws.

Except as permitted by law or with our written permission, you may not reproduce, republish, distribute, modify, sell, license, or commercially exploit our content.

Reasonable quotations for commentary, criticism, scholarship, education, or news reporting may be permitted under applicable copyright law, provided appropriate attribution is given.

Linking to our journalism

We encourage other news organizations, researchers, educators, and members of the public to link directly to our stories.

Links should not falsely imply endorsement by The Jersey Vindicator or misrepresent our reporting.

Republishing our content

Unless we expressly state otherwise, our content may not be republished in full without our written permission.

Organizations interested in republishing our journalism should contact us regarding licensing or syndication opportunities.

Nothing in this section limits rights provided under applicable copyright law, including fair use.

User submissions

You may voluntarily submit story ideas, news tips, photographs, videos, documents, public records, comments, or other materials.

By submitting materials, you represent that you have the legal right to provide them and that doing so does not knowingly violate the rights of another person.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, you retain ownership of your submitted material.

If you voluntarily submit material for editorial consideration or publication, you grant The Jersey Vindicator a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to review, reproduce, edit, publish, distribute, archive, and display that material in connection with our journalistic mission, unless you and we agree otherwise in writing.

We are under no obligation to publish, investigate, respond to, or use any submitted material.

News tips

We welcome news tips from members of the public.

Submitting a tip does not create an attorney-client relationship, guarantee confidentiality, require us to investigate, or guarantee publication or a response.

Individuals seeking confidential communications should review our Sources & Attribution Policy and any secure communication options provided on our website before submitting particularly sensitive information.

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions are made solely by The Jersey Vindicator’s editors and journalists.

Donors, advertisers, sponsors, board members, attorneys, government officials, businesses, advocacy organizations, political organizations, and other outside parties do not determine what we investigate, report, or publish.

Additional information is available in our Editorial Independence Policy.

Accuracy

We are committed to accurate, fair, and independent journalism.

If you believe one of our stories contains a factual error, please review our corrections policy for information about requesting a correction.

Third-party content and links

Our Services may include links to third-party websites or embedded content such as videos, maps, or social media posts.

These third-party services operate under their own terms and privacy policies.

The Jersey Vindicator is not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or availability of third-party websites or services.

Donations

The Jersey Vindicator is a nonprofit news organization supported in part by charitable contributions.

Donations do not influence our editorial decisions.

Information about our funding practices is available in our Editorial Independence Policy and Diversity of Funding Policy.

Disclaimer

Our journalism is provided for informational purposes and reflects information reasonably available at the time of publication.

Circumstances may change after publication. Although we may update stories when appropriate, we do not guarantee that every article will reflect every subsequent development.

Nothing published by The Jersey Vindicator constitutes legal, financial, tax, medical, or other professional advice.

Readers should consult qualified professionals regarding their individual circumstances.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Jersey Vindicator and its officers, directors, employees, volunteers, contractors, contributors, and agents shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from or related to your use of, or inability to use, our Services.

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability where such exclusion is prohibited by law.

Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Jersey Vindicator and its officers, directors, employees, volunteers, contractors, contributors, and agents from claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and reasonable attorneys’ fees arising from your violation of these Terms or your misuse of our Services.

If you believe content published by The Jersey Vindicator infringes your copyright, please contact us with sufficient information to allow us to evaluate your claim.

We will review copyright complaints in accordance with applicable law.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Any legal action arising from these Terms shall be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction located in New Jersey unless applicable law requires otherwise.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

Contact us

Questions regarding these Terms may be directed to:

The Jersey Vindicator

General newsroom inquiries: editor AT jerseyvindicator.org

Website: www.jerseyvindicator.org