Standard Editor

Overview

Job Title: Standards Editor

Department: Editorial

Reports To: Executive Editor

FLSA Status: Exempt

Job Band: 9

Location: Washington, DC | Hybrid

Schedule: Full-Time

 

Job Summary

Journalism under pressure is where standards matter most — and RFA operates under more pressure than almost any international news organization. Its reporters work in high-surveillance environments, cover closed governments that actively seek to discredit its reporting, and publish across platforms where manipulation, disinformation, and legal risk are constant. The Standards Editor is the institutional guardian of RFA's credibility: the editor whose judgment every story with significant risk must pass before it reaches audiences.

This is not a compliance role. The Standards Editor works in real time alongside reporters, editors, and Managing Editors — advising before publication, not auditing after the fact. The role sets the standards that govern RFA’s journalism across every platform and language desk, maintains the Code of Journalistic Ethics that underpins every editorial decision, and leads the institutional response when standards are breached.

The Standards Editor is one of a small number of roles with newsroom-wide authority — sitting above the language desks and alongside the Managing Editors — and is the primary point of accountability for journalistic integrity across the organization.

Responsibilities

Pre-Publication Standards Review

• Serve as the newsroom’s primary pre-publication standards checkpoint for sensitive, high-risk, or legally complex stories, advising Managing Editors, Editors in Charge, and the Investigations Desk in real time on sourcing, verification, accuracy, fairness, and ethical compliance.
• Evaluate the strength of sourcing on high-stakes stories, including single-source reporting, anonymous or confidential sources, and sources who face retaliation risk inside closed societies.
• Assess legal exposure in coordination with General Counsel, including defamation, privacy, and the use of leaked or hacked materials, and flag stories that need formal legal review.
• Weigh the risks of identifying or describing sources, victims, minors, and vulnerable individuals, especially where publication could endanger people or their families in the region.
• Provide a documented rationale for significant standards decisions so that decisions are consistent and defensible over time.

Standards Documentation and Policy

• Maintain and regularly update RFA’s Code of Journalistic Ethics and Best Practices Guide so they reflect current platform realities, evolving legal risk, AI and emerging technology considerations, and the editorial challenges of closed-country reporting.
• Draft and revise policies on the use of generative AI in reporting, translation, and production; synthetic or manipulated media; deepfake detection; and disclosure to audiences.
• Develop guidance on social media conduct for staff and freelancers, including personal accounts, political expression, and engagement with sources and subjects.
• Establish and refine policies on corrections and clarifications, retractions, unpublishing, anonymous sourcing, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, and the use of translated or secondhand material.
• Develop guidance specific to RFA’s context, including reporting through intermediaries and stringers, working with sources under surveillance, operating in languages and political contexts where verification is difficult, and navigating RFA’s relationship with its federal funding without compromising editorial independence.
• Keep documentation accessible and translated or adapted as needed for multilingual desks, with plain-language summaries and practical examples.

Cross-Desk and Cross-Platform Consistency

• Monitor the consistent application of editorial standards across all language desks and platforms (web, social, video, audio, and shortwave), identifying patterns of inconsistency and working with Managing Editors and Editors in Charge to address them.
• Conduct periodic content audits and spot checks, including sampling of published material across languages, to identify recurring issues in attribution, sourcing, labeling, tone, and corrections.
• Ensure that standards apply equally to short-form and fast-turnaround formats, such as social posts, video captions, and live audio, where errors are most likely.

• Report trends and recommendations regularly to senior editorial leadership.

Investigations of Alleged Violations

• Investigate alleged violations of RFA’s Code of Journalistic Ethics, conflict-of-interest policies, and editorial standards by reviewing the work in question, interviewing relevant parties, and examining editing and publication records.
• Provide expert assessment and findings to editorial management, General Counsel, and Human Resources, distinguishing standards findings from personnel decisions, which rest with management and HR.

Proactive Guidance and Risk Planning

• Provide proactive standards guidance ahead of major news events, high-risk coverage periods, and editorial firsts, such as elections, anniversaries, protests, crackdowns, leadership transitions, natural disasters, and conflicts.
• Advise on new editorial initiatives, formats, and partnerships, such as collaborative investigations, data journalism projects, new platforms, and AI-assisted workflows, before launch.
• Anticipate disinformation campaigns and coordinated influence operations targeting RFA or its coverage areas, and advise on appropriate response and verification protocols.

Training and Capacity Building

• Design and deliver training for editors, reporters, producers, and freelancers on ethics, verification, sourcing, legal risk, and responsible use of AI.
• Develop onboarding materials for new hires and onboarding for editors stepping into higher-risk roles.
• Run case-study workshops based on real or anonymized decisions to build shared judgment across language services.
• Support Managing Editors in coaching their teams on standards.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 15 years of journalism experience and in-depth knowledge of the principles and methods of journalism and effective delivery of news and information programming to an international audience across various types of platforms.
• Deep knowledge of journalism ethics and accepted professional norms, including sourcing, attribution, fairness, conflicts of interest, corrections, and plagiarism.
• Demonstrated experience making real-time, high-stakes editorial judgments on sensitive, legally complex, or high-risk stories, with a track record of sound decisions under deadline pressure.
• Substantial experience editing investigative or enterprise reporting, including stories involving anonymous sources, leaked materials, or allegations against powerful subjects.
• Proven ability in navigating the terrain of ethical questions that arise during the process of news gathering, program preparation and production, and broadcasting operations in a variety of formats.
• Strong managerial experience, possesses the knowledge and credentials to lead the team through complex issues and crises; grasps the implications of policy and procedural changes, and makes sound recommendations.
• Knowledge of adapting RFA production elements to multimedia platforms, including but not limited to the techniques for the delivery of online news, audio and video streaming for online programming, web publishing, social media feeds and newsletter services.
• Experience working directly with in-house or outside counsel on pre-publication legal review.
• Experience designing and delivering newsroom training on ethics, verification, libel, and sourcing in order to work closely with RFA’s HR/Training team on providing up-to-date training and assessment to RFA’ staff, and to partner with the Human Resource team on taking disciplinary action when necessary.
• Skill in oral and written communications; ability to communicate and negotiate with staff and Agency management to reach agreement, and exceptional writing skills, with the ability to turn complex judgments into clear, usable guidance for editors and reporters.

 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience as a standards editor,public editor, or member of a standards and ethics team at a major international or multilingual news organization.
• Experience reporting on or editing coverage of East Asia, Southeast Asia where RFA covers, or familiarity with the political and media environments of closed or restricted countries.
• Working knowledge of media law relevant to an international news organization, including defamation, privacy, source protection, and the legal exposure of reporting on or from authoritarian states
• Familiarity with digital verification and open-source investigation techniques (OSINT), including image, video, and geolocation verification
• Working understanding of how generative AI, synthetic media, and emerging technologies affect newsgathering, production, and disinformation.
• Experience working across editorial cultures, with sensitivity to how standards are interpreted and applied across language desks is highly desirable

 

Physical Requirements / Working Conditions

This is a full-time, exempt position based in Washington, DC. Some flexibility in work hours required to accommodate international time zones. The role follows a hybrid schedule, with 3 days in office and 2 days in remote. 

Salary Range: $162,000-$180,500/Year. Final salary is commensurate with experiences and skills that are compatible with the requirements of the role.

This position is ineligible for sponsorship by the company for any work authorization, applicant must possess existing work authorization to be considered for the position.

Application Instructions: Please submit a cover letter along with your application.