LCN Constitution 1 (2023)

This document is an addition to The Constitution of Littlehampton Community News (2023) and does not undermine its effect in any way.

Article 1: No Amendments, changes, or alterations shall be made to any part of the Constitution of the News without a 75% majority vote of all constitutionally founded teams — the LCN Constitutional Committee, Community Representatives Committee, Governors Committee, Board Oversight and Management Committee, Advisory Committee, Community Board, all team members and users of the News’s services, Universal Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission, Municipal and Local Representatives Board, National Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission, Municipal Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission, LCN’s Founder, the President, and any other constitutionally empowered department.

Article 2: All departments must remain independent of one another but may work together provided they follow the Constitution and protect this necessary document.

Article 3: All constitutional departments are to be separate from one another and shall, at all, times ensure that they follow the Separation of Powers. They may, however, work together provided they follow the requirements of Article 2.

Article 4: The LCN Constitutional Committee members may serve a lifetime during good behaviour and may only be removed via the exact way the Constitution may be altered under Article 1 or by a court with the relevant jurisdiction if appealed to a judge. They are appointed by all specified in Article 1 with no limit to how many members may hold the Office of the Constitutional Committee, and anyone can apply. Their duties are to enforce, uphold, and protect the independence of each department and protect the Constitution and be the final source of appeal before the Supreme Authority of Accountability. They can take the necessary measures, independent of LCN, to uphold the Constitution and determine the validity of all rules and decisions made by LCN and its members and departments under the powers delegated to them under the Constitution, ensuring those decisions don’t contradict the Constitution. They may block decisions if they can be proven to be in violation of the Constitution with a 75% majority of the Committee. They may also block emergency orders after 72 hours, which the Representatives may also do.

Article 3: The President and the Founder shall remain independent of each other and must follow the provisions of Articles 2 and 3 alongside any other requirements set by the Constitution. Neither of them are above the Constitution unless specifically exempted by it, and the same applies to all members and departments.

Article 4: Bribery, bullying and dishonesty, corruption, and misconduct are instant grounds for the dissolution of any member, Representative, or constitutionally empowered official after an Investigation of all departments and a 75% majority vote of all confirms the accusations to be nothing but the truth.

Article 5: All persons using our services have the Right to Anonymity unless a valid court-issued subpoena is submitted to us for a serious crime against any individual, entity, or business. Any data we have of the suspect must be sent back to the requesting court discreetly and within the time period specified on the warrant sent to the IID Department from the judge.

Subsection 1: An exemption to Article 5 shall be valid if the warrant issued is reasonably believed to be issued for an unlawful, politically motivated, or malicious prosecution of the accused and if it’s deemed to be unethical or not in the best interests of society. This Subsection shall be valid so long as Articles 2 and 3 are adhered to in relation to the 75% majority vote of all, which will determine how the News will respond to the subpoena request.

Article 6: All policy decisions must pass a 50% majority vote through the LCN Constitutional Committee, Community Representatives Committee, Governors Committee, Board Oversight and Management Committee, Advisory Committee, Community Board, all team members and users of the News’s services, Universal Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission, Municipal and Local Representatives Board, National Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission, Municipal Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission, LCN’s Founder, the President, and any other constitutionally empowered department before they become valid to enforce with the exception to Emergency Procedures, which may last for 30 days. Emergency Procedures must be reviewed through the same procedure as everyday policy decisions after 30 days or shall be automatically invalidated if a 50% vote is not held after the final three days under the Threshold (three days after 30 days from when the Procedure was issued).

Article 7: The Community Representatives Committee are the voice of LCN’s members and are elected once every three years. They cannot be removed unless otherwise stated by the Constitution or if they breach Article 4. They have a duty to hold decision makers to account and give their votes on LCN policy proposals — and so do all other constitutional departments and officials. They must also represent the views of the general public whether or not they have registered on LCN’s services or servers.

Article 8: Any person can make a proposal for LCN to vote on a new policy or to change existing policies, and a vote must be held within 49 days from the date their proposal reaches 30,000 signatures. However, LCN officials must have their proposal heard within 6 months with or without 30,000 signatures, and this time limit decreases to 15 days from the date their proposal reaches 5,000 signatures.

Article 9: The Governors Committee is an advisory Committee that represents the views and concerns of LCN and its members, and they have the constitutional right to be heard by the Complaints Management Board that they choose to contact (whether that be their local, national, or universal Board). Their concern must be heard within 20 days, while the general public must first go through the Governors Committee to then appeal to another Committee of their choice; all appeals must be heard within one calendar month. This Committee has the power to directly advise other committees and represent their complainants, but they can’t take action themselves unless a constitutionally valid policy delegates them the power to do so. However, they can issue up to three warnings to team officials, but they must then contact the CMB, who can grant them permission to take action on their behalf.

Article 10: The Board Oversight and Management Committee is an influential, independent Chair Group made up of several random people that join LCN policy proposal debates. They can voice their concerns and opinions when the Speaker says “I, the Speaker, authorise the Oversight to speak”, and the Speaker can do the same for anyone else. Each person must take turns and remain respectful and reasonable and take accountability for their actions, and it’s the constitutional duty of the Speaker — who is elected by the Community Representatives Committee by a 50% majority — to enforce this rule.

Section 1: It is the right of any person, anonymous or not, to join a Virtual Conference and be heard by the Board Oversight every time a new policy proposal is discussed, and the Oversight must share each and every opinion at the debate. Each Board member has one vote, and they are to be elected by LCN’s site members once a year so that they remain independent of LCN and can continue their constitutional work without interference.

Article 11: The Universal Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission is responsible for the overall conduct of LCN officials and can enforce both the Constitution and all valid policies. It has the constitutional power to do this.

Section 1: The Municipal Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission has the same powers as its Universal counterpart but should focus more on complaints in and around their area. However, they retain the full LCN jurisdiction of the centralised Commission and have the same powers under this Section.

Section 2: The National Complaints Management and Disciplinary Commission has the same powers as its Universal counterpart but should focus more on complaints in and around their country. However, they retain the full LCN jurisdiction of the centralised Commission and have the same powers under this Section.

Section 3: The Municipal, National, and Universal Committees can issue warnings, sanction members, and address concerns, as well as ban members and officials from the News if they break either valid policies or the Constitution.

Article 12: All decentralised departments shall possess the same powers as their centralised counterparts of LCN.

Article 13: The Advisory Committee is a group of independent LCN officials and members, who advise all LCN officials on how to act, and they can give an Advisory Interpretation Notice to any official — including the President and the Founder — on how the Constitution works, whether policies could be unconstitutional, and how to protect the LCN security and better uphold the Constitution and LCN policies. These independent members must fill out a form to join. Then, their advice must be addressed before any decision or proposal is made, each member of the Committee will have a right to vote or request a proposal.

Article 14: This Article provides all officials of LCN with the Office of the Constitutional Committee and gifts every official with the same LCN powers, rights, protections, and privileges but ensures that the Separation of Powers is upheld by all, and it is the duty of all officials to uphold and protect the Constitution.

Article 15: LCN must request the consent of any person it wishes to collect data from unless it’s being used for intelligence purposes or the prevention of crime and unethical practice.

Article 16: All LCN officials must use their discretion when enforcing either LCN policy or the Constitution and may only exercise their constitutional rights when justified to do so.

Article 17: The Supreme Authority of Accountability is sovereign when handling appeals from the Constitution, and LCN must follow its decisions unless they're proven to be politically motivated, invalid, or biased or unlawful/unethical. LCN must also take into account the decisions of any court whether or not the ruling judge has jurisdiction over the News, but it's not constitutionally obliged to cooperate in this case.

Article 18: LCN policy shall be valid so long as it has been voted by a 50% majority of all LCN officials and members. It shall not have any affect if it violates the Constitution, as this is the supreme source of policy of the News.

Article 19: The Constitution may be changed through a Constitutional Review Appellate Proposal, but this can only passed with a 75% majority of all service members and LCN officials. It is then up to the Founder to make the final decision, but he/she must take into account the advice of the President and his/her team and provide a valid reason for not passing the Proposal. If rejected, the Proposal must be reviewed by all officials and resubmitted to the Founder — who shall not be dismissed from the News without the consent of the Supreme Authority if they find him/her guilty of corruption, fraud, unethical violence, terrorism, or bullying.

Article 20: Individual departments' policies shall have the affect of LCN central policy within their departments when central policies have not addressed the topic in question. But they must follow the Constitution and central policy. Internal policies must receive a 50% majority vote of their department and all of its officials and service users.

Article 21: No official shall be punished, dismissed, or silenced by LCN for whistleblowing so long as the complainant has probable cause to believe the allegations to be true.

Section 1: An unproven allegation must clearly state that it is reasonably believed to be true but cannot be sworn to be the truth.

Section 2: Provided whistleblowers follow Article 21 and Sections 1 and 2, they shall be constitutionally protected.

Article 22: LCN Guidance may be written by any official and should be taken into account. It advises officials on the interpretation of central and local LCN policy and even the Constitution. It must, however, be signed by the President and Founder and not be found to violate the Constitution, and it's not an official source of policy and is, therefore, not required to be adhered to.

Article 23: LCN must protect its sources unless a serious crime is reasonably suspected of a source we hold any data of.

Section 1: Serious crime specifically includes murder, aggravated assault, any violent crime, animal abuse, corruption, fraud, or terrorism.

Article 24: LCN may collect intelligence, information, and data of any person it is investigating for a suspected crime, unethical wrongdoing, or disturbance in the community. But the IID and Founder must be informed of the investigation.

Article 25: The Independent Crime and Investigation Department is responsible for the prevention, detection, and investigation of crime in the community and must act on all complaints sent to them by members or officials.

Article 26: LCN must follow the law where possible when investigating alleged wrongdoing or for the purposes of investigative journalism.

Subsection 1: It can justify not following the law if doing so could interfere with the Freedom of the Press or if doing so would cause harm to property, animals, people, or the environment — or a failed investigation for a suspected serious crime or wrongdoing.

Article 27; LCN shall enjoy the Freedom of the Press when acting in an ethical manor and following the Constitution, and content can only be removed if it's deemed to cause serious harm or organised criminal trends. Censorship is strictly forbidden by Article 27.

Article 28: The Constitution shall not contradict itself, and no successful argument shall be made that one Article is more important than another unless the Supreme Authority of Accountability rules otherwise. And all Articles shall be equally important and have the same level of interpretation and affect.

Article 29: Constitutional allies shall only be valid where both LCN and the other service follow the agreement set. Their policies shall take priority for their service over LCN policy unless agreed otherwise, but the Constitution of LCN shall remain supreme over its partners' policies unless they vote themselves out of LCN's jurisdiction by a 50% valid majority of their team unless agreed otherwise. And LCN policy shall take priority when its constitutional allies' policies don't provide a solution to any situation by addressing the issue concerned.

Section 1: The LCN Constitution is supreme over all valid constitutional allies through their agreement until their team officials and any service members are given the chance to vote to depart from LCN and provided a valid 50% majority is accomplished. A vote can only be held 5 days after the Declaration of Departure is made, and no person or group shall attempt to prevent this constitutional right of any LCN allies looking to leave the News by a valid vote without consent from the Supreme Authority.

Section 2: LCN cannot ovveride a valid majority vote after a successful Declaration of Departure under Section 1 of Article 29.

Section 3: The Supreme Authority of Accountability shall no longer hold jurisdiction over LCN's constitutional allies once a successful vote has been achieved, and LCN will no longer have any say on their decisions or complaints.

Section 4: LCN policy shall be taken into account by its constitutional allies but will only be mandatory to follow if agreed by the constitutional allies. This is excluding the Constitution, which is supreme over the policies of both constitutional allies and LCN and its departments and entities.

Section 5: LCN-created departments have no constitutional right to depart from LCN's jurisdiction without the consent of both the President and Founder in writing. These are different to constitutional allies, which this Section defines constitutional allies of LCN as originally independent entities that agreed to join LCN by agreement to follow the LCN Constitution and any additional terms in the agreement if applicable and which have the right to leave upon a successful Declaration of Departure is accomplished.

Article 30: Copyrighted material on LCN's services shall always be the property of its creator unless explicitly agreed otherwise.

Article 31: LCN must not give in to external pressure in respect to its journalistic duties, and all shall be treated equally and with respect

Section 1: LCN must be independent of the state, society, other publishers, law enforcement, and any monarchy or supreme ruler of any nation.

Section 2: LCN cannot be biased towards a particular individual, group, or political party except when writing opinion pieces or Comment & Analysis articles.

Article 32: Everyone has the right to protest, whistleblow, speak out, and campaign against the News and its constitutional allies.

Article 33: No person or group shall face penalty without good reason.

Article 34: LCN must prioritise EU and international law before UK, or other local, law. The News must also take into account the decisions of courts around the world that would generally not have jurisdiction for UK matters.

Section 1: The News must recognise the law of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights, and international law before local law. It must also respect the fundamental laws of the UK — like the Statute of Marlborough 1267, the Bill of Rights 1989, the Magna Carta, the Human Rights Act 1998, the rulings of the UK Judiciary, and all other laws except where they can be proven to prevent the fundamental work of independent journalism or freedom of the press/expression. This is to be decided by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary of the UK and, if appealed from the Supreme Court, potentially the European Court of Human Rights or even the international courts.

Section 2: A defence to non-compliance with the law is provided by Constitution 1 of the News where LCN has acted in the public interest and following the law would have the potential to affect the free reporting of the press or all and any other fundamental rights.

Article 35: No LCN official, or anyone else representing the News, shall disturb any person that has a sign on their property against cold calling with two constitutional defences.

Subsection 1: An LCN official may have a defence if challenged if their actions were urgent and there was no alternative way of communicating with the resident; if it was in the public interest; or where an investigation into criminal activity or societal wrongdoing requires the official(s) to ignore the notice in protection of any person, property, or potential loss of crucial evidence. If an official or representative of the News must do this, they must inform the Independent Crime and Investigation Department of LCN in writing of their actions, how the interaction or operation went, and any other information related to the exercise of this constitutional defence.

Subsection 2: A defence may also be considered to cold calling where there was no sign displayed, the sign was not clearly displayed, or the visit was necessary for public protection.

Article 36: LCN must always inform any person they collect data from provided that it's not related to the investigation of crime or ethical wrongdoing except where it wouldn't be practical to do so or if doing so could place any person in harm's way. There is also a defence where the data is part of an intelligence bulk surveillance operation in protection of the safety of society or any person or their property.

Article 37: LCN must not gather intelligence from the users of its services without their express consent except where the Privacy Policy of the News says otherwise and provided that it wouldn't identify those wishing to remain anonymous when contacting the News. The Policy must be on the LCN website and be easy to find by the average person. The same rule also applies to cookies, marketing ads, affiliate links, and third-party advertising.

Subsection 1: There are several constitutional defences to this, such as: the protection of public safety. But these must always be logged when a defence is used so that those exercising the defence can be held accountable by LCN or a court of law. No defence shall be valid unless it's recorded in writing with all of the relevant information related to the case/matter or investigation.

Article 38: No one is above the Constitutions of LCN, and these (and any other) documents must remain entrenched except where a 75% majority vote was successfully accomplished by the users of LCN, its team members and departments, officials, constitutional allies, and any other person representing LCN. The President and the Founder must also agree to the change and be willing to put it into affect.

Section 1: Each member or official of LCN may only have one vote per session requiring a vote — such as the introduction of a new Policy Proposal or an attempt to alter the Constitution.

Article 39: The fundamental rights, freedoms, and guarantees provided by international law and the European Convention on Human Rights shall take supremacy over domestic law, and LCN must respect this. Rulings and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and all international courts shall also take supremacy over domestic legislation.

Provision 1: Where a domestic court rules against LCN and there is conflict between local law and the fundamental rights of the Convention or international law, LCN has a duty to, and must, refuse to acknowledge the ruling. Any such domestic ruling shall be invalid and, thus, not legally enforceable.

Article 40: LCN may introduce and remove constitutionally valid rules (orders, codes, acts, policies, civil procedures, etc) and expect to have them enforced and prioritised above all other statutes of LCN departments and allies with the exception to any constitutional text or conflict with the Constitution. And LCN may entrench these with special provisions required to amend, repeal, or alter these.

Chapter 1: All rules must be voted for by a 50% majority of LCN's team members to be passed or repealed except where entrenchments are included in the rules — in which case, those must also be followed.

Chapter 2: LCN departments can expect their valid rules to be enforced where there is no conflict with LCN rules or the Constitution and where a 50% majority has been achieved. They may entrench these rules, but LCN rules and the Constitution will automatically supersede the rules of its municipal departments where there is conflict. These rules will only apply to the respective departments in which they were passed.

Article 41: No one is above the Constitution, and this shall forever be our command and the demand of the common people. This must also be upheld in a court of law and by the Supreme Authority of Accountability, which this Article defines as: (a) municipal courts and national courts, (b) appellate courts, (c) treaty courts, and (c) the international courts. Bands A–C is the category of the hierarchy of supremacy granted to the courts by the Constitution, and Band C is the primary authority and Band A the less-powerful courts.