BLNT EDITORIAL POLICY

Empress Empire LLC presents BLNT News & Media

1. PURPOSE

BLNT News & Media exists to publish independent coverage across Art, Cannabis, Lifestyle, Wellness, entertainment, culture, and related subjects. Our editorial standard is Bold. Liberated. Naked. Truth. This policy establishes the baseline for accuracy, independence, fairness, transparency, corrections, sourcing, conflicts, and responsible coverage.

2. EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

Editorial decisions are made on editorial grounds. Advertising, sponsorship, partnerships, event relationships, free listings, distribution relationships, gifts, access, or personal relationships do not guarantee favorable coverage or any coverage at all.

Paid or sponsored material must be identified in a manner reasonably clear to the audience. Editorial staff and representatives may not promise editorial coverage in exchange for payment, advertising, access, gifts, or favors.

3. ACCURACY AND VERIFICATION

Contributors should verify material facts before publication using reliable primary sources, direct interviews, records, firsthand observation, or credible secondary sources as appropriate. Names, titles, quotations, dates, locations, statistics, allegations, links, captions, and identifying details should be checked with particular care. Uncertainty should be described as uncertainty rather than presented as fact.

4. SOURCES AND ATTRIBUTION

BLNT should identify sources when doing so is responsible and practical. Information from other publications, creators, photographers, researchers, or organizations must be appropriately attributed. Anonymous or confidential sourcing should be used deliberately; editors may require a source's identity to be disclosed internally before publication.

5. FAIRNESS, CONTEXT, AND CULTURAL RESPECT

Coverage should avoid unnecessary stereotyping, dehumanization, exploitation, or sensationalism. People who are the subject of significant criticism or potentially damaging factual allegations should ordinarily receive a meaningful opportunity to respond when circumstances permit.

6. BLACK PEOPLE AND BLACK CULTURE

BLNT approaches coverage of Black people and Black culture with respect, specificity, context, and awareness of historical and contemporary media distortion. This commitment does not eliminate fact-checking, critical reporting, accountability, or editorial independence.

7. CANNABIS COVERAGE

Cannabis coverage must distinguish editorial information from medical, legal, or investment advice. BLNT should avoid presenting unverified health claims as established fact and should distinguish personal experience, emerging research, and established evidence. Age-restricted environments must be handled according to applicable access rules.

8. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Contributors and editors must disclose to the assigning editor any financial, employment, family, romantic, business, management, promotional, or other relationship that could reasonably affect—or appear to affect—their coverage. BLNT may reassign, add disclosure, modify scope, or decline coverage.

9. GIFTS, ACCESS, AND CREDENTIALS

Complimentary admission, products, travel, hospitality, press access, or credentials do not purchase coverage. Team members must not sell, transfer, misuse, or misrepresent BLNT credentials or access.

10. INTERVIEWS, RECORDING, AND QUOTATIONS

Contributors should identify themselves and BLNT when conducting interviews unless an editor has specifically approved another lawful reporting method. Material quotations should accurately reflect what was communicated and should not be deceptively altered.

11. AI-ASSISTED WORK

AI tools may assist with research organization, transcription, brainstorming, formatting, or editing when permitted by BLNT. They are not a substitute for human verification. Contributors remain responsible for every fact, quotation, citation, image, claim, and conclusion submitted under their name. Confidential or embargoed material should not be entered into third-party AI systems without authorization.

12. CORRECTIONS AND UPDATES

Material factual errors should be corrected promptly after verification. Significant corrections should be transparent to readers when appropriate. Routine copy edits, formatting changes, and ordinary updates may not require a formal correction note.

13. PLAGIARISM, FABRICATION, AND MANIPULATION

Plagiarism, invented quotations, fabricated sources, knowingly false information, undisclosed material manipulation, or passing another person's work off as one's own are prohibited and may result in rejection, removal, suspension, or termination of participation.

14. EDITORIAL AUTHORITY

The Editor in Chief and authorized editors retain final authority over assignment, editing, headlines, placement, timing, publication, correction, unpublishing, and archival decisions, subject to applicable law and written agreements.

15. QUESTIONS

Editorial questions may be directed to editor@blntnews.com.