The incident of plagiarism in our own newspaper last June left us stupefied, speechless and ashamed.

Stupefied because we did not detect the violation of one of the most basic rules of journalism.

Speechless because it was one of our own editors who committed a violation.

Ashamed because we value La Voz as not only the voice of a dedicated few but the voice of De Anza College.

June 18 was our last issue before summer break, which interrupted our publication cycle, so the incident loomed over our heads like Damokle’s sword.

We have long been proud of our accomplishments. Yet many of the awards recognizing our achievements in writing and design have not been placed on the wall to join awards from the past.

Our true hall of fame was the wall where we put up our most recent newspaper issues. Now, our wall has been tainted, and we need to find ways to make amends.

One step we can take is to accurately report what has happened. Another step is to educate our staff about the role and responsibility of a newspaper. Lastly, we have to make sure we practice what we preach.

The Associated Press Managing Editors Association determines four major principles for making a good newspaper: accuracy, integrity, responsibility and leadership.

Accuracy:

La Voz strives for completeness and guards against carelessness, bias and distortion by either emphasis or omission. La Voz will cite all sources of news and clearly label sources that cannot be identified.

Integrity:

La Voz maintains vigorous standards of honesty and fair play in the selection and editing of its content as well as in all relations with news sources and the public. La Voz will treat disputed issues with impartiality and practice humility and tolerance in the face of honest conflicting opinions of disagreement.

Responsibility:

La Voz will select, edit and display information on the basis of its significance to the public. La Voz will avoid an imbalance of a sensational, unilaterally negative or trivial news and respect rights of privacy.

Leadership:

La Voz will aim to serve the public and oppose demagogues and other selfish and unwholesome interests regardless of their size and influence.

The definitions of these principles have been established in our handbook, the guide that tells us what we should strive for as a newspaper.

We promise to adhere to these guidelines and to serve the public by providing unbiased, factual information.