Media, Social Media, and External Engagement: Policy & Procedures

PURPOSE

The purpose of this policy is:

• to encourage staff to engage in their areas of expertise with media, social media, especially in support of ACLED outputs

• to make staff feel confident about what ACLED's parameters are for what ideas and content they can and should share in all kinds of external engagement

• to ensure staff know their responsibilities toward ACLED during their external engagement and the impact such engagement can have on ACLED’s reputation and security.

• to give guidance to staff on how to best represent the organization externally, and the positive and effective way external engagement and social media can help to promote the organization’s priorities.

SCOPE

This policy applies to all ACLED staff members, including contractors, employees, the Board, whether permanent, temporary or contracted (either as an individual or via a third-party supplier). 

External engagement includes all public presentations on topics that are related to ACLED's work on data and conflict: interviews with media, podcasts, appearing in webinars, social media posts, and commenting on social media posts.

Staff are free to engage with any topics that are of a private nature or not relevant to ACLED's work on data and conflict, as long as the staff member's engagement does not carry risks to ACLED's reputation by association, for instance on websites or news outlets that could be considered damaging to our principles set out below.

ROLES

ACLED’s Board of Directors - to sign off on policy and procedures;

Chief of External Affairs - as lead on the external engagement and communications;

Head of Operations - as lead of the compliance and policy implementation;

Line managers  - to ensure staff are aware of the policy and its principles;

All staff  - to follow the policy.

PRINCIPLES

Professionalism: ACLED staff members are ambassadors for an organization that wants to be seen as a respected leader in its field. 

Responsibility: public external engagement can result in media reports and social media posts being permanently available and open to being republished at any time.

Credibility: ACLED's credibility is enhanced when staff are accurate, fair, and use good judgment in their public statements. 

Representation: When speaking as ACLED staff, always try to underline elements of what the organization does and how it does it. Talking points are suggested here. If attending a non-ACLED webinar as a guest speaker or attendee, consider using one of the ACLED-branded backgrounds from a choice kept here.

Independence and impartiality: ACLED staff must also avoid public engagement that could damage our reputation for independence, impartiality, good faith use of data and accuracy, or with external actors or outlets who could do that damage by association. 

Training: Any ACLED member of staff can approach the External Affairs team's Associate Manager Syranno Baines to arrange training or guidance on media interviews and social media engagement. They can also contact Sofia Martinez, External Affairs team, for training on public speaking, webinars or in-person outreach.

PROCEDURE

ACLED has a list of designated employees who are encouraged to represent the organization publicly and speak on behalf of ACLED. These select staff members will at times be asked by the External Affairs and Management team if they'd like to represent the organization in external engagement opportunities. If you are not on the list and wish to be added to the list as someone able to speak for ACLED on a topic, please first seek your supervisor's and department's consent and then contact the External Affairs unit's Strategic Outreach Manager Sofia Martinez.

For both designated and non-designated employees, if a staff member has been approached for an external engagement, either on behalf of ACLED or independently, they must always copy the External Affairs team (communications@acleddata.com) in exchange for awareness or ask for advice. If a non-designated staff member is approached externally for comments, they should submit a request to the External Affairs team via email with their Manager in copy. Please provide the relevant documents and/or description of the engagement opportunity, flagging in the subject line whether this is an ACLED-related engagement or an independent opportunity.

An independent opportunity is when your external engagement is on an ACLED-related topic but does not mention your association with ACLED. Such commentary or outputs may only be produced through standard ACLED channels (i.e. as an ACLED product). Engaging in independent commentary around political violence and protest outside of ACLED constitutes a conflict of interest. ACLED contractors may produce content which does not make use of ACLED data or content provided it does not constitute a conflict of interest, but may not claim ACLED affiliation when doing so. They should email communications@acleddata.com for guidance on how to proceed.

Please kindly note that ACLED contractors are not allowed to speak on behalf of ACLED publicly or claim affiliation with ACLED when conducting any qualitative data collection and/or interviewing policymakers/government officials etc, unless instructed otherwise.  

When in doubt, always contact your Supervisor copying the External Affairs team (communications@acleddata.com).

IMPLEMENTATION

This policy is made available via the ACLED intranet. All staff will need to be aware of this policy. There is associated training with this policy, available for all new team members and on-demand from the External Affairs team. 

ACLED staff are welcome to discuss concerns regarding media and social media. Please get in touch, for instance, if you feel you are becoming a target of online harassment.

SOCIAL MEDIA

ACLED staff members are welcome to list their affiliation with ACLED on their social media accounts. All staff are encouraged to use their official title at ACLED as defined in the contract and make sure to include a standard disclaimer on the social media page. An example of a disclaimer is: “Opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer,” or if pushed for space, "Posts my own." 

Please note that while disclaimers are a helpful way to distinguish personal accounts, staff must be aware that their actions/behavior on social media can ultimately still reflect on the organization. All staff are encouraged to use good judgment. 

ACLED staff are encouraged to share content that has been published on the ACLED website and posted on ACLED’s social media channels: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Even better, add a few words of your own that will resonate with your own network. Social media use is at all times a voluntary, personal decision. 

If any staff member receives any questions or comments about ACLED, they must alert the External Affairs team before replying: communications@acleddata.com. No staff members are allowed to use ACLED logos on their personal social media accounts or create unauthorized accounts with official ACLED branding.

For staff members who authored an ACLED publication and would like their account to be featured on ACLED social media, they can share this information with the External Affairs team and/or on the media-mentions channel on Slack.

SECURITY and SAFETY

For security reasons, ACLED staff must not share any ACLED material that is not already published on the website or on official social media channels. All staff are encouraged to be mindful of the previously signed confidentiality agreement. 

Staff members must be cognizant of the safety and privacy of their colleagues and not tag or otherwise mention fellow ACLED employees or contractors on social media unless there is a clear approval. It is of utmost importance to protect the identity and privacy of their colleagues and to refrain from revealing any confidential or unpublished information online (i.e. ACLED data and internal documents). ACLED also advises to restrict the privacy settings on social media sites. 

Employees and contractors may not use their personal social media to do any of the following:

1. Disclose confidential or unpublished ACLED information;

2. Misrepresent posts or statements as official ACLED communications;

3. Make defamatory or harassing statements about ACLED, ACLED products and outputs, its partners, or any related organization.

Publicly affiliating with ACLED may present a danger in specific high-risk contexts. In these cases, ACLED advises that staff do not publicly disclose their affiliation with the organization, on social media or otherwise. All ACLED employees and contractors are asked to sign a liability waiver, so please refer to that document for information. 

If a staff member authored an ACLED publication and requires anonymity/pseudonymity for security reasons, please contact the HR Team.

OUTREACH TRAINING

Designated speakers who may be called on to speak to the media or in webinars can ask for training. This training will be refreshed periodically and conducted by the External Affairs team. For media interviews specifically please contact Syranno Baines in the first instance; for other outreach work, contact Sofia Martinez. Additional media training on specific topics or issues will be arranged if needed.

ENGAGEMENT STEPS 

• A simple rule all staff members should remember: they should only be offering to take interviews on or otherwise address topics they are qualified to discuss based on their current role and job responsibilities. Staff members need to refrain from answering any questions that may be outside of their area of expertise pointing to Comms for support.

• Designated speakers should only inform External Affairs and their Manager for their awareness and record-keeping purposes; and are recommended to proceed with engagement. Should they have any concerns about the outlet or information to present, they should always reach out to External Affairs.

• Non-designated speakers should first inform their managers, who will make a final decision. For any support or additional information, the managers are recommended to consult with the External Affairs team. The final decision is with the Chief of External Affairs, with the support of the Executive Team where necessary.

• If the engagement is approved, ACLED speakers or interviewees should prepare for the event and can request talking points from the External Affairs team, notably the Manager of Strategic Outreach. Where possible, they should ask the organizers for questions in advance. 

• It is important to also consult the ACLED History document, if necessary, in order to properly address any general questions about the organization. 

• All written outputs need to be reviewed by the External Affairs team before publication or presentation in a webinar. 

• In urgent cases, designated speakers can proceed without the formal review process.

• Send information about the publication or broadcast to the External Relations team for logging and promotion along with any additional digital communications (e.g. email chain), an overview of how the engagement went and any potential issues, and outcomes/next steps (e.g. requests for more information, requests to be added to the email list, requests for training, etc.).

For any questions about these guidelines, contact the Communications team at communications@acleddata.com.