Our standards

These are the standards every Saltonstall Media publication works to. They are the master versions. Each title publishes its own policies in its own language, and those follow what is set out here.

We publish our standards so that readers can see what we have committed to and hold us to it. If you believe one of our publications has fallen short of them, the corrections page explains how to tell us and what happens next.

• Editorial policy

  The editorial principles every Saltonstall Media publication works to: accuracy, fair headlines, news kept apart from comment, the right of reply, independence and care for the people we report on.

• Sourcing and verification

  How Saltonstall Media publications choose their sources, credit the work of others, handle anonymous sources and check a story claim by claim before it is published.

• Corrections

  How Saltonstall Media publications correct mistakes quickly and in the open, how to report an error or make a complaint, and how requests about personal information are handled.

• Ethics

  The ethical rules Saltonstall Media publications hold themselves to, on conflicts of interest, payment, fair treatment, honest reporting and the separation of journalism from commerce.

• Diversity

  How Saltonstall Media publications work to reflect the whole of the countries they serve, in the stories they choose, the voices they include and the language they use.

• Mission and coverage priorities

  What Saltonstall Media publications are for and what they cover first: the news that shapes daily life, public power held to account, and the stories people talk about, told accurately.

• Advertising and commercial content

  How advertising and sponsored content are labelled and kept apart from journalism on Saltonstall Media publications, and why coverage can never be bought.

• Ownership and funding

  Who owns the Saltonstall Media titles, how they are funded and how their editorial independence is protected from ownership and commercial interests.

How the standards are kept

The standards apply to everything our titles publish, from a short news item to a long report, including headlines, captions, fact boxes and pictures. They are reviewed when experience shows they need to be clearer or stricter, and a change applies from the day it is published here.

Where the press ethics code of a title's country asks more than these standards do, the national code applies.