# Mission, Identity, and Guiding Principle

**The Archive Ethics Project** · Version 1.0 · 2026-10-11  
**Status:** Proposed  
**Source:** https://archiveethics.org/documents/mission.md  
**Retrieved:** 2026-10-12

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## Mission statement

To advance ethical, transparent, and consistent standards for preserving and managing historical news coverage through independent research, institutional engagement, and practical editorial guidance.

## Vision

A journalism environment in which historical reporting remains trustworthy, consequential later developments are responsibly contextualized, and people can understand how requests involving older coverage are reviewed, even where the answer is no.

## Non-negotiable commitments

- Historical integrity is a legitimate public interest.
- Editorial independence belongs to the authorized editors, including student editors.
- Preservation, correction, contextual updating, anonymization, de-indexing, and removal are distinct remedies.
- The same evidence rules apply to institutions that agree and disagree with AEP recommendations.
- An unpublished policy is not proof of no policy. Nonresponse is not opposition.
- Policy adoption dates cannot be inferred solely from the first date a document was discovered online.
- Founding motivation and material conflicts must be disclosed.
- The project must be able to publish findings that contradict its starting assumptions.