IA Comments Policy

Comments are moderated and may be removed if they:

1. are untrue, contain untruths, or contain allegedly factual claims that are unsourced and/or unreferenced;
2. are off-topic, which includes any comment which reflects on moderation;
3. are inflammatory, or contain threats or personal attacks;
4. contain explicit, profane or violent language;
5. are prima facie defamatory, or contain potentially prejudicial references to ongoing legal cases;
6. contain personal information;
7. contain links to unrelated, non-credible, violent, hatemongering and/or explicit websites;
8. merely contain a link, or links, without any accompanying explanatory text;
9. are longer than the article itself; or
10. are spam — such as where one person or a small group dominates the comments so as to drown out other voices, or attempts to close down debate.

Comments will not be edited to remove any of the above.

Any comments that are seen to break any of these rules may be flagged by the reader, which will send the comment back to moderation.

Moderation is done in as fair a way as possible, though by definition it is subjective and at the discretion of the moderators and the publication.

No correspondence on moderation will be entered into.