Last updated: August 24, 2026
Editorial Guidelines, Quality Standards, and Ethics
1. Purpose and scope
Our priority is to serve the public with relevant, understandable, and supported information. These standards apply to news, interviews, analysis, columns, photographs, video, social posts, and updates. Opinion, advertising, sponsorship, and third-party material must be clearly identified.
2. Accuracy and verification
- We verify names, dates, figures, locations, quotations, and documents before publication, in proportion to the significance and risk of the claim.
- We prefer primary sources: official documents, records, direct interviews, original data, and verifiable evidence.
- A social-media post, press release, or single person’s account is not automatically presented as established fact.
- Serious allegations require heightened corroboration and a reasonable opportunity for the person or organization concerned to respond.
- For developing stories, we identify what is confirmed, attribute provisional information, and update when relevant facts emerge.
3. Attribution, quotations, and sources
We identify sources whenever possible and link to original documents when publication is lawful and does not put anyone at risk. Quotations must preserve meaning and context. We do not present another person’s work as our own.
Anonymity is granted exceptionally when information has public value and there is a reasonable risk involving retaliation, safety, or privacy. The newsroom should know the source’s identity and explain to readers, without revealing it, why the name is withheld. We do not promise absolute confidentiality that technology or legal obligations may prevent us from guaranteeing.
4. Fairness, right of reply, and presumption of innocence
We seek comment from people affected by substantial allegations before publication. If they do not respond within a reasonable period, we may say so when relevant and keep a channel open to add their position. A reply request does not require us to reproduce false, abusive, or irrelevant claims; it does require prompt, proportionate, good-faith review.
People under investigation, arrested, or charged are described precisely. They are not presented as guilty before a final judgment, and we distinguish among a complaint, formal charge, judgment, and appeal.
5. Privacy, dignity, and vulnerable people
- We publish personal information only when there is sufficient editorial and public-interest justification.
- We avoid disclosing addresses, identity documents, phone numbers, medical data, intimate images, or other information likely to cause disproportionate harm.
- We give special protection to minors and survivors of sexual violence, unless valid consent and an exceptional, lawful journalistic reason support identification.
- Sensitive images carry context and warnings when appropriate; they are not used to exploit suffering or create gratuitous shock.
6. News, opinion, and conflicts of interest
News content distinguishes verified facts, context, and interpretation. Columns and commentary are labeled as opinion. Contributors should disclose personal, political, financial, or professional relationships that could compromise, or appear to compromise, independence. A relevant conflict may require reassignment, disclosure, or withholding a piece.
7. Advertising, sponsorship, and affiliation
Advertising does not purchase favorable coverage or prevent legitimate investigation. Paid, sponsored, branded, or affiliate content must be visually distinct from editorial content and explain its nature. Advertisers do not receive advance approval of editorial conclusions.
8. Artificial intelligence and automated tools
Artificial-intelligence tools may assist with transcription, translation, organization, or drafting. They do not replace human accountability. Before publication, a responsible person must review facts, sources, quotations, copyright, privacy, context, and language. We do not attribute machine-invented quotations to a source or publish photorealistic generated images that could be mistaken for evidence without clear labeling.
9. Photography, video, and intellectual property
We use original, authorized, compatibly licensed material, or content supported by a legal exception evaluated for the particular use. Public availability does not equal permission. We provide attribution required by a license and avoid edits that alter documentary meaning. Reconstructions, composites, and generated images must be labeled when they could mislead.
10. Corrections, updates, and reply requests
We correct confirmed material errors within a reasonable time. The correction should appear with the content or be explained in a note when it materially changes meaning. Minor typographical errors may be fixed without a note when meaning is unchanged. Substantial updates should explain what changed and, when useful, when.
To request a correction or reply, email [email protected] with the URL, disputed passage, requested correction, and verifiable documents or sources. We will acknowledge and assess the request according to its complexity; we do not promise an outcome or uniform deadline before review.
11. Complaints and accountability
Editorial complaints are reviewed against the evidence, public interest, seriousness of potential harm, and these guidelines. If the reviewer directly participated in the work, we seek a second internal review when feasible. These standards guide our work and accountability; they do not turn every editorial decision into a contractual guarantee.