Bahá’í review of electronic publications
The following guidance was issued by the National Spiritual Assembly on 18 December 2012.
Review of electronic publications
As many of the friends are already well aware, it is important for all Bahá’í literature, articles and audio-visual items to be reviewed if they are intended to be sold or circulated widely. The purpose of review is to ensure that the Faith is not misrepresented and to ensure the dignity and accuracy of the presentation of the material.
Regarding the review of electronic publications, the National Assembly is pleased to share with the community the following guidance from the Universal House of Justice (from a letter of 6 May 2012):
Formal electronic publications, such as electronic books and articles in online journals, are to be submitted to the National Spiritual Assembly to undergo a process of review before they are made widely available, in the same manner as the long-standing procedure for review applied to printed works.
More generally, there is no list of detailed rules to guide believers who are striving to contribute in various ways to the Bahá’í presence on the Web … Naturally, any website developed by a Bahá’í would avoid presenting inaccurate descriptions of the Faith and would take care to uphold its dignity. While responsibility for providing authoritative information about the Faith, its history, and the activities of its community of adherents clearly falls to the institutions, a growing number of individual believers are finding spaces in which they can appropriately offer insights drawn from their understanding of the teachings on a wide range of issues, thus enriching the Faith’s presence online. In this connection, the House of Justice hopes that National Spiritual Assemblies will become increasingly adept at assisting the friends to appreciate the difference between those areas of activity which are the preserve of the institutions; those in which efforts, while belonging to individuals, may proceed only under the close supervision of the institutions—certain endeavours concerned with defending the rights of the Bahá’í community, for example—and those, usually modest in scope and scale, in which believers may pursue their own initiatives as a contribution to the overall progress of the Faith.
We hope that this guidance will be of assistance to those friends who are making efforts to contribute to a Bahá’í presence on the Web and the National Spiritual Assembly and its Review Panel would be happy to assist the friends further in this, if required.
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