On July 15, 2015 MMTC’s Board passed Five Principles for Civil Discourse, which MMTC pledges to follow through heightened prescreening of media and social media content. MMTC invites other organizations to implement these Five Principles in their public advocacy and dialogue as well. The related Board resolution is available here.
The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s Five Principles of Civil Discourse
In today’s fast-paced Internet Age, civility often takes a backseat to rhetoric. Social media tools provide an environment for overzealous advocates to generate vicious, sometimes anonymous, personal attacks against those who do not share the same position. An organization serving communities of color should never engage in gutter-level attacks against those with whom it disagrees. Rhetorical assaults that divide communities of color diminish the value of our voices on important issues of telecommunications, Internet, and other social justice policy and have no place in civil discourse.
Only a small number of organizations represent communities of color, and the continuing battle to advance civil rights needs the full and unencumbered efforts of each of them. The differences of opinion among these organizations are much narrower than the differences that exist between these organizations and their ideological adversaries. Therefore, all of those serving communities of color must agree to disagree on issues where their opinions might not align, while coming together on those issues where they share a common goal.
High standards for public advocacy are expressed in these Five Principles of Civil Discourse:
- Civil Communications: We will discuss our differences openly and always adhere to a standard of discourse that expresses appropriate respect for the parties involved. We can disagree without being disagreeable.
- Presumption of Ethics: We will not, without incontrovertible proof otherwise, presume that a nonprofit organization has taken a policy position in exchange for financial compensation, nor will we contact or ridicule a nonprofit’s donors in an attempt to discourage financial support. We will assume that other nonprofit organizations have the intellectual capacity and moral authority to make their own decisions and reach their own conclusions.
- Backing Up the Facts: When we make specific, fact-based assertions that another party’s position is not for the best, we will provide references to research, scientific evidence, or other available support for our assertions.
- No Guilt by Association: We will not attack nonprofit organizations, individuals, or other parties based on the reputation of an unrelated organization, individual, or party that holds a similar stance on the issue.
- Respect for Historic Icons: We will not invoke the names of the deceased – especially religious or civil rights leaders – as though we know what that leader would have said or done. Citations to deceased leaders will be limited to statements they clearly made on the specific issue under discussion.
Organizations may implement these Five Principles through heightened prescreening of their media and social media content. Before publishing any document, White Paper, government filing, tweet, or Internet post, organizations should screen the document to ensure compliance with the Five Principles.
