Mission statement

Akapela Open’s goal is to be unbiased, trusted, and respected. We are here to inform and entertain on the tech that matters.

We are an independent publisher founded in 2003 and have seen and written about thousands of products during that time.

Our review program is simple but effective: reviewing products in real-world environments, just how you would use them, rather than in a lab, benchmarking.

Our review process starts with a first look at a launch event or a trade show, and then we move to the next stage of the process until the product is fully reviewed.

Our promise to you

• We do not take payment for product reviews. We never have and we never will.
• We select products for the market.
• Our reviews are written by our in-house team of freelance experts in their field.
• Our reviews always cover the good and the bad points (pros and cons) of any product, helping you decide if it’s the right product for you.
• Our reviews are balanced. We understand that some products are not for everyone.
• If you think we can do it better than we are doing it – let us know – via the feedback form – and we’ll work towards putting it right.

Many sites deal with their reviews and news in different ways. In the pursuit of clarity, we’ve detailed the different types of work we write and publish on the site below.

Ethics Policy

We consider these guidelines to be a “living document” that we will continually modify and update on our feedback, from our readers, and from our perceptions of our changing needs.

Our commitment is to produce journalism that is accurate, fair and complete. Our journalists act with honesty, transparency and independence, including from conflicts of interest.

We believe in editorial independence and integrity, and never show any content we produce to their PR representatives prior to publishing.

Diversity Policy

Diversity is important to Akapela Open. We do everything we can to seek out various voices, not only in our staff and freelancers but also the people we interview and feature in the stories we cover. Race, class, generation, gender and geography are all equal in their status at Akapela Open.

Sources

We strive to treat sources fairly. This means putting things into perspective and summarising the arguments of people we are recognisably fair and accurate.

At times sources will ask to remain anonymous, and we will work with them to protect their anonymity in the interest of protecting the professional standing of the source.

Corrections

All Akapela Open articles can be updated as soon as possible. Articles may be “updated” to reflect developments in the news cycle. Posts can be “corrected” if there are factual inaccuracies. If a story is factually incorrect and has been corrected we will add a correction to the bottom of the article for readers to see.

Readers can report factual errors via our feedback form or our postal address.

When we publish erroneous information on social networks, we will endeavour to correct it on that platform.

Actionable feedback

We believe that public feedback is important. We are committed to engaging with you and taking action based on your suggestions, complaints and other feedback. Whether that’s asking you to help us develop an individual story or line of coverage, answer questions that a story may raise, identify related or under-covered issues, and teach us about new and diverse sources, experts and perspectives.

In line with this, we are committed to providing greater transparency about our journalism and offering regular points of contact and interaction. We believe that news organisations have a responsibility to engage with the public on the values, issues and ideas of the day, and that we have much to gain in return.

You can reach our journalists individually via email listed on the articles they write, or via the Feedback form.