Editorial policy

The rules that govern what we publish — reviewed as we go

The source comes first: no story leaves the newsroom without a documented source named in the source box at the foot of every item — the body's name, and the date. If we do not know the source, we do not publish, even if the story is on every platform.
Accuracy before speed: we would rather be an hour late verifying than first with a mistake. Sensitive breaking news goes out first as a short alert, updated as each new fact is confirmed, and only becomes a full story once the checking is complete.
Two sources for sensitive stories: casualties, major security incidents and the economic figures that shape people's lives are never built on one source — they need two independent ones that are not quoting each other.
News is not opinion: opinion pieces carry an “Opinion” badge in their headline and a byline card with the author's name, and never mix with news — not on a page, not in the running order. An author's opinion does not bind the newsroom, but choosing to publish it binds us to its standards.
The headline says what is in the story: no headline that promises more than the text delivers, and no question in a headline whose answer the story itself does not give. A reader who clicked on a promise and found nothing will not come back — we know that.
Respect for the people we write about: when covering tragedies, displacement and accidents we avoid publishing images of the dead and injured in degrading situations, we do not name victims of sexual offences, and we check the names of the dead against two sources before publishing; mistakes in names, in these places, are unforgivable.
Mistakes are corrected in public: every newspaper makes them; the difference is in how they are handled. We correct in the corrections log, with the time of the correction and a note of what changed, and we flag the correction inside the item itself. Silent deletion is banned here; the only exception is removing an item proven to violate someone's privacy or put them in danger — and then the reason for the removal is stated in the log.
Advertising does not buy coverage: every paid item is labelled “Advertisement”; no advertiser sees an editorial item before it is published, and no story is dropped or altered to please a sponsor. Whoever buys advertising space from us buys space — nothing else.