| Guardian News and Media Freelance Charterguardian.co.uk Variation of terms | Commissions | Rejections | Fees | Payment | Expenses | Bylines and credits | Copyright terms | Joint contributions | Definitions | Delivery of contributions | Insurance | Safety | Ethical standards | Indemnity | Status of freelances| Charitable donations | Disputes | New contributors | Release forms The Freelance Charter and the terms and conditions hereof apply to all freelance contributions provided to Guardian News and Media Ltd ("GNM", "we", "us") for use, publication and transmission in the Licensed Publications. We accept that the standard terms we seek in freelance contributions may not always be appropriate, for example, if a contribution has been previously published elsewhere or you have syndication arrangements that potentially conflict with our own. For the purposes of clarity to both parties, any variation of our terms must be agreed prior to publication and may require the approval of the Managing Editor or his/her nominees. Please note there is no obligation for freelances to accept our standard Freelance Charter terms nor for us to accept contributions other than on our standard Freelance Charter terms. If you wish to discuss a variation of the terms of the Freelance Charter or you have any other queries, please speak in the first instance to your commissioning editor or to the Rights Department (rights@guardian.co.uk; tel. 020 355 34575). At the time of commissioning your contribution, you and the relevant commissioning editor should agree the fee to be paid, allowable expenses, the deadline and the rights acquired. You should also agree on the main points to be covered in your contribution, and any special requirements. A verbal agreement to commission is sufficient in itself. We will confirm the terms in writing either by email or by letter. Our written confirmation will contain a unique Commission Reference Number ("CRN") which you should include with your contribution (see Delivery of contributions below) and on all invoices and correspondence. If your contribution is rejected you should be told quickly: within two weeks for features, or the same day for news items. If you don't hear anything, feel free to ask. Editors should not delay unreasonably or deny you the chance to offer an unwanted contribution elsewhere. We pay the full, agreed fee for a contribution that is not used, except where it fails substantially to meet the requirements agreed at the time it was commissioned. The spike fee for a contribution we reject will usually be not less than 50% of the agreed commission fee. Fees are quoted in GBP and apply to all Licensed Publications including the guardian.co.uk network of websites unless otherwise stated. Written contributions Blog posts which are either commissioned or "Pick of the day": 85.00 Commissioned pictures News and sport images submitted on a speculative basis and reproduced the same day: Commissioned illustrations and artwork Stock Imagery Editorial desks initiate payments to content suppliers. It is the policy of GNM to make all payments on a self-billing basis and via electronic funds transfer facilities (BACS in the UK) into your designated bank account. Any deviations from this policy are subject to the approval of the Managing Editor. If you are a new contributor, GNM Accounts Payable shall contact you requesting your bank account details, and UK VAT Registration number if appropriate. If you notify GNM that you have appointed an agent to collect and receive all monies in respect of your contribution, then GNM shall be entitled to rely on such and to make all payments directly to your agent. Agents: For UK VAT-registered contributors represented by an agent where the contributor is the principal in supplying goods and services to GNM, in line with HMRC guidance notice 700 and in order to comply with self-billing regulations the self-billing agreement shall be between the contributor and GNM and GNM shall require the contributor's full name and trading name if applicable, a copy of their valid VAT registration certificate, their VAT registered address, and their UK VAT Registration number. You shall be deemed to have entered into a self-billing agreement with GNM for a period of 12 months from the date of our first self-billing invoice. The self-billing agreement shall renew thereafter for further periods of 12 months on receipt of successive self-billing invoices from GNM. During the period of the self-billing agreement you agree not to raise sales invoices for any transactions between you and GNM. GNM Accounts Payable may be contacted as follows:
It is in your interests to ensure that your payment details are kept current at all times in order to avoid unnecessary delays in making payments to you. Any difficulties over payment should be reported initially to GNM Accounts Payable as above. NB Any existing contributors to GNM as at 26 July 2010 who are VAT-registered in the UK shall be migrated to our new self-billing arrangements on 01 October 2010. Until such time, upon payment authorisation by Editorial GNM shall request automatically from you such invoices that it requires. We ask that you do not submit invoices directly to editorial desks as you shall be required to quote on your invoice our Request for Invoice number provided by GNM Accounts Payable. Unless otherwise agreed, you will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses wholly and necessarily incurred in the preparation and delivery of contributions we have commissioned or you are contracted to provide. If your contribution has not been commissioned by us but is offered to us for publication, any expenses you have incurred in relation to it will be payable at the discretion of the editor who accepts your work for publication. All expense claims are subject to vetting and approval. Settlement of claims shall be conditional upon: a) submission of a properly itemised claim with copies of all receipts attached. Expenses should be sent to your commissioning editor, either by email or by post to Guardian News & Media Ltd, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please attach your CRN or ARN to all expense claims; and b) receipt of claims by GNM no later than one calendar month following the date on which the expenses were incurred. Where a car mileage payment is agreed this is paid at the staff mileage rate, or a proportion where an assignment is shared with other publishers. Unless otherwise stated, moral rights will reside with you subject to normal and reasonable editing requirements. We will assert these rights on your behalf. Pictures Click here for our crediting policy for pictures Video Where the content is exclusively third-party we provide an on page credit plus 2 seconds within the video at the appropriate point. Where the content is mixed, for each contribution from separate third-parties greater than 2 seconds continuous duration we provide a credit where the relevant third-party contribution commences. We reserve the right to display credits at the end of programmes where appropriate. Standard terms for written contributions Standard terms for pictures, illustrations and artwork Standard terms for audio, video and audiovisual contributions Subject to any agreement to the contrary, the copyright status of contributions created, produced and/or undertaken jointly by staff employed by us and freelance(s) and/or agencies engaged by us shall be deemed a joint copyright between us and the respective freelance(s) and/or agencies, for example jointly written articles. The copyright terms of the non-staff element shall be subject to the above Copyright terms. "Licensed Publications" means the following publications and products in their various languages: all formats and editions (including print, electronic, audiovisual and digital products and any special or sponsored supplements) of The Guardian, The Guardian International, The Observer, The Observer International, The Guardian Weekly, Public, Money Observer, the guardian.co.uk network of websites and all other publications and products made available by us or licensed by us anywhere in the world. "Commissioned Contribution" means material originally commissioned by us for transmission, publication or licensing by us. For the avoidance of doubt, in relation to pictures "Commissioned Contribution" includes the shoot and all negatives, transparencies, digital pictures and other original material produced by the photographer during or as a result of the shoot. "Contribution" means material contributed to us - whether as a Commissioned Contribution or otherwise ordered in by or offered to us for publication, transmission or licensing by us and made accessible by us via print or the internet or mobile platforms or via TV or satellite broadcast or by other means throughout the world. Contributions may appear in whole or in part in any size in any part of the Licensed Publications in all sections, magazines and supplements thereto including sponsored supplements without limitation on inside pages, front pages and covers, section covers and supplement covers, in galleries, individually or in sequence, in colour or in black and white. An "edition" means any print, electronic, audiovisual or digital version or any regional, national or international variation of a single issue of a Licensed Publication and a "single issue" means each day's, week's, month's or year's (as applicable) new version of each Licensed Publication. "External Archives" means both subscription and publicly available databases such as Lexis-Nexis and the Houses of Parliament. These institutions offer access for research purposes to material from many sources including print publications. They are usually accessible on-line but also via platforms such as CD-ROM. "Newspaper Licensing Agency" (aka the NLA) is a limited company whose shareholders consist of eight national newspaper publishers. It was set up in 1996 to offer anyone - sole traders, companies, educational institutions and any other body - a one-stop shop for a licence to photocopy, digitally copy or transmit cuttings of the UK's national news media and many regional and foreign titles, too. "Syndication" means the direct or indirect re-licensing to third-parties in English and other languages of material we have published or broadcast in the Licensed Publications and "syndicate" shall be construed accordingly. Under our syndication agreements, clients are permitted to integrate our content into their own platforms and products. Our clients are worldwide and include by way of example the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post, MSN and users of the Guardian's Open Platform. Revenues can be but are not limited to subscription fees and advertising share. "Spot Sales" means the sale to third parties in English and other languages of individual items of content we have published in the Licensed Publications. We negotiate a licence fee for such reproduction and contributors normally receive a share of the revenue. "Stock Imagery" means pictures, illustrations and artwork that are (i) submitted to us on or after 1 September 2009 and are not Commissioned Contributions of pictures; or (ii) retrieved from existing internal or external collections and archives, and may have been used, published or transmitted, either by us or by another publisher, on occasions prior to the relevant use in our Licensed Publications. Contributions should normally be filed electronically. Delivery instructions are set out below and in our commission confirmations. If electronic delivery is likely to be impractical, you should mention this to your commissioning editor. Details of our insurance cover for freelances working abroad on commissioned assignments are available on request from the Company Secretary in our Manchester office. The Company Secretary must be informed if you are travelling to a war zone (or other high-risk assignment) on our behalf. Your commissioning editor should normally do this for you. It is not our intention to expose freelances to dangerous assignments without appropriate safety training and insurance cover. If you have any concerns in this area you should consult the Managing Editor before starting the assignment. We expect you to observe the highest ethical standards in your work. You will be expected to co-operate fully in the event of a complaint about your contributions to the Press Complaints Commission or our internal ombudsman. It is your duty to inform us of any actual or potential conflict of interest arising from work you do for us. We indemnify freelances against action for defamation on the same basis as staff journalists. This indemnity may be invalidated in the event of on your part: a gross misconduct or negligence relating to the contribution in question; As an independent contractor, you will work from your own premises in providing services to GNM and will provide all the necessary equipment and materials to enable you to fulfil the terms of your commission. You are not an employee of GNM. For the avoidance of doubt, you are not a "worker" as defined under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended from time to time), and therefore you acknowledge that the provisions in those Regulations relating to hours of work, rest breaks and annual leave do not apply to you. You shall be responsible for all tax liabilities arising in respect of your engagement under the Freelance Charter, and shall yourself account to the appropriate authorities for all tax, National Insurance or similar contributions payable in respect of the provision of your services to GNM under the Freelance Charter. In order to comply with HMRC regulations, GNM's policy regarding charitable donations of contributor fees is as follows: a) contributors may receive fees themselves and make their own direct donation to a charity of their choice; or b) contributors may request GNM to make a donation on their behalf to GNM's nominated charity, currently the Katine Project. Other charities may be added in the future. In the event of a dispute between an individual freelance and us, a joint panel, comprising where appropriate either the NUJ General Secretary or another and the Managing Editor (or their nominees), will attempt to resolve the matter amicably. If you want to offer us a contribution you should consider which section of the newspapers or websites is most likely to be interested. Contact the commissioning editor for this section - ideally by phone or email - and briefly outline your idea. The commissioning editor may offer to "take a look" at your proposed contribution. This means that you are invited to submit it speculatively and you will be paid only if your contribution is published. Unless you are already an established contributor, it is most unlikely that the editor will "order" or commission a contribution from you. Please do not send pictures or artwork unless we request them. We do not accept responsibility for loss of unsolicited prints, transparencies, etc. Contributions should be sent to us electronically. Other methods are possible - but only in exceptional circumstances. We publish contributions from all freelances on our standard copyright terms and payment is at our normal rates, unless agreed otherwise before publication. Click here for GNM's release form containing our terms and conditions for restricted material. This form may only be used with the authority of GNM's Rights Department which can be contacted at rights@guardian.co.uk or on 020 7713 4575. · Last revised: 01 September 2009 | |||||||||||||||||
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