Comment Guidelines

Firstly, we appreciate all those who take the time to comment as the feedback adds another dimension to Bernews – providing analysis, additional information, humour and more.

All comments are moderated. They are initially held, and normally approved within minutes from 5am to midnight. Comments left overnight are often approved at a slower rate, our apologies for this.

Although we attempt not to infringe free speech, there are a variety of comments that may not be approved.

Comments Not Permitted For Legal & Other Reasons

• General: Profanity, racial slurs, homophobic slurs, most comments of a sexual nature

• Court stories: Referencing a past bad act or assuming guilt before someone is convicted and/or trying to post names/facts that may have been specifically left out. In many cases, these are not our rules, they are the ‘laws of the land’.

• Libel and unproven accusations: Accusing people, who have not been convicted, of things such as theft and corruption.  The person may, in fact, be guilty of the offence in question but without a conviction saying as much can be deemed libelous and we could be sued. Subsequent comments complaining about not being able to libel people will also be deleted.

• Deaths: Extremely insensitive remarks about someone passing away and/or trying to post the person’s name or the fact they have died before the police officially release the information. In the interest of not ‘sweeping things under the carpet’ when the person’s death results from activities like drunk driving and participating in the gang lifestyle, there is some leeway – but only some.

• Family: Attacks on family members are off limits, and comments referencing people’s mothers/children are prone to be deleted. Posting people’s “personal family business”  is also prone to be deleted.

• Gangs:  Posting under gang names, ‘bigging up’ gangs, promoting lack of co-operation with police investigations

• Physical threats: Generally not permitted for legal reasons

• Promotions/Links: With the exception of charity, school and sporting events – promotional comments and/or links will often not be approved. We are 100% dependent on links/banner ads for revenue, and like any business we cannot afford to give away our entire product free everyday and expect to remain viable. If you would like to promote something, please contact our sales manager at advertising@bernews.com.

• Kids: The old adage ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all’ will be applied to stories involving persons under 18. There are some exceptions such as a teenager being charged in Court with a crime.

• Other media: Links and comments to/about other local media outlet are often prone to be deleted. Most businesses won’t promote competitors for free [ever seen a sign on a grocery store telling you to go to another one?] and we are no exception.

• Promoting yourself/your family on articles about others: Rather than detract from someone else’s accomplishment in an attempt to highlight your own, please send an email with the relevant information and we can post a separate story.

Those are general guidelines, but it will often depend on the circumstance and the story in question. For example if you make a harsh comment about a teenage scholarship winner it will  not be approved, but if you said someone twice as harsh about a convicted murderer it would sail through.

Please do not automatically assume we have barred your comment, as all comments are filtered through spam filtering technology which from time to time flags legitimate comments. This filtering is necessary is due to the automated bots that leave hundreds of spam comments a day. If you find that your comment isn’t immediately showing up, it may have been erroneously flagged as spam. We apologize for this, and you can email us at info@bernews.com to bring it to our attention.

There is only so much we will accept. For those that choose to continuously push the bounds of decency your ability to leave comments may be impacted.  In extreme cases, we reserve the right to block an individual’s computer from accessing Bernews website.

All comments within this website are the responsibility of the commenter, not the owners, administrators, contributors, editors, or authors. By submitting a comment, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold Bernews Ltd and all subsidiaries and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability.

Comments are strictly separate from the article, and do not represent the views of Bernews Ltd, or affiliates. All trackbacks will be treated inline with our Comments Policy.

To request removal of a comment that you feel may be libelous in nature please email us at info@bernews.com with your name and a link to the article in question.  Please do not contact us asking for the identity of a commentator, as it will not be provided.

In the end comments are approved at the sole discretion of Bernews.com, and our decision to block comments we deem unsuitable is final.

And thanks for commenting!