Editorial Policy

Last updated: 5 October 2026

This Editorial Policy sets out the standards we hold ourselves to when we report, write, edit and publish at Cerge Media. It applies to everything we publish under our name, including news, features, analysis, reviews, opinion and newsletters, whether it’s written by our own team or by freelance contributors.

We publish it so that readers know what to expect from us and can hold us to it. If you think we’ve fallen short, please tell us at [email protected].

What we stand for

Our purpose is to help readers understand technology and its effects on business and everyday life. That means three things in practice:

• Accuracy first. Getting it right matters more than getting it first.
• Clarity. We explain technical subjects in plain English, without dumbing them down or hiding behind jargon.
• Independence. We decide what to cover and what to say on editorial grounds alone. Advertisers, sponsors, sources and subjects of our coverage don’t get to influence that.

Accuracy and fact-checking

Every article is checked before publication. Writers are responsible for verifying the facts in their copy, and an editor reviews each piece before it goes live. In particular we check:

• names, job titles, company names and product names;
• figures, statistics and the date they relate to;
• direct quotes against recordings, transcripts or written statements;
• claims made by companies, which we treat as claims rather than facts until we can support them;
• technical explanations, which we test where we can or check with people who understand the subject.

If we can’t verify something, we leave it out or tell readers clearly what is unconfirmed and why we think it’s still worth reporting. We give statistics with their source and the period they cover, because a number without a date is often misleading.

Sourcing

We prefer primary sources: official statistics, regulatory filings, court documents, peer-reviewed research, company reports and on-the-record statements. When we rely on another publication’s reporting, we credit it by name and link to it. We never present someone else’s scoop as our own.

We link to our sources wherever possible so readers can check our work and read further. Where a source is behind a paywall, we may still link to it, and we’ll make clear what it says in our own words.

Anonymous sources

We prefer people to speak on the record. Sometimes, though, a source has a good reason to stay anonymous, for example fear of losing their job or legal risk. We grant anonymity sparingly, only where the information is important and can’t be obtained another way. The editor must know the source’s identity. We describe anonymous sources as precisely as we safely can, explain why they were granted anonymity, and seek corroboration from at least one other source or document. We will protect the identity of a source we have promised anonymity.

Press releases and embargoes

Press releases are a starting point, not a story. We don’t republish them, and we add context, independent comment or our own analysis. We respect embargoes we have agreed to, but we don’t agree to embargoes that come with conditions on what we can say.

Fairness and right of reply

When we publish significant criticism of a person or organisation, or make serious allegations, we give them a fair opportunity to respond before publication, with a reasonable deadline. We report their response fairly, or say that they declined to comment or didn’t respond.

We distinguish clearly between news reporting, analysis and opinion. Opinion pieces are labelled as such, and even opinion must be based on accurate facts.

Privacy and harm

We report on public figures and organisations in the public interest. We are careful about intruding on the privacy of private individuals, and we don’t publish personal information about people unless there is a clear public interest in doing so.

In our cybersecurity coverage, we take care not to publish information that would help attackers more than it helps defenders. We won’t publish working exploit code, stolen credentials or leaked personal data. Where we report on a vulnerability, we consider whether a fix is available and whether the affected organisation has been told. We do not pay for hacked or stolen data.

Use of AI tools

Like many publishers, we use AI tools in parts of our work, and we think readers deserve to know how.

AI tools may assist with research and editing. For example, they may help summarise long documents, transcribe interviews, suggest headline options, check grammar and spelling, or flag passages that might be unclear. They are tools to support our journalists, not a replacement for them.

All articles are reviewed by editors before publication. A human editor reads every piece, checks its facts and sourcing against the standards in this policy and takes responsibility for what we publish. We do not publish articles generated by AI without that human review and verification.

We apply some further rules:

• We don’t treat AI output as a source. Any fact, figure or quote produced or summarised with AI assistance is checked against the original source before it appears in an article.
• We don’t use AI to invent quotes, sources, people or events.
• We don’t use AI-generated images to depict real people or real events as if they were photographs. Our articles are illustrated with real photographs used under free licences or with permission.
• We take care not to put confidential information, unpublished source material or personal data into AI tools where it could be stored or used to train models.
• If AI-generated material is itself the subject of a story, for example an example of a chatbot’s output, we label it clearly.

We’ll update this section as the tools and our use of them change.

Corrections policy

We will make mistakes. When we do, we will correct them promptly and transparently.

• Factual errors are corrected in the article, with a note at the end stating what was wrong, what we changed and the date of the correction.
• Significant errors, such as those that change the meaning of a story or unfairly damage someone’s reputation, are corrected as a priority. The correction note is placed prominently, and where appropriate we will also correct the record on any channel where we shared the story.
• Minor changes such as spelling, grammar, formatting or broken links may be made without a correction note.
• Updates, where a story develops after publication and we add new information, are marked with the date of the update so readers can see what changed.

We don’t delete articles to hide mistakes. We will consider removing or anonymising an article only in exceptional circumstances, for example where it causes serious, unjustified harm to a private individual or is legally required.

To request a correction, email [email protected] with the article link, the specific claim you believe is wrong and any evidence. We aim to acknowledge correction requests within 2–3 working days.

Conflicts of interest

Readers need to be confident that our coverage isn’t shaped by private interests. We ask everyone who writes for us to follow these rules:

• Financial interests. Writers must declare to the editor any shares, investments or other financial interest in a company they are writing about, including significant holdings in cryptoassets they cover. Depending on the interest, we may assign the story to someone else or disclose the interest in the article. Writers must not trade on information before it is published.
• Personal relationships. Writers must declare close personal or family relationships with people or companies they cover.
• Outside work. Paid work for a company, such as consultancy, copywriting or advisory roles, must be declared. A writer will not normally cover a company they have worked for recently.
• Gifts and hospitality. We don’t accept gifts that could reasonably be seen as an attempt to influence coverage. Low-value items such as event refreshments are acceptable. Any significant hospitality, such as paid travel to a product launch, is disclosed in the related article.
• Review products. Manufacturers sometimes lend or give us products to review. We disclose this in the review. Supplying a product does not entitle a company to see the review in advance or to influence its verdict. Loaned products are returned when the review is complete.
• Payment for coverage. We never accept payment in return for editorial coverage, favourable reviews or inclusion in articles. We don’t sell links in our editorial content.

Advertising, sponsorship and affiliate links

Our commercial and editorial work are kept separate. Sponsored content is always clearly labelled, and it is produced to the sponsor’s brief, not presented as our independent journalism. Advertisers don’t receive favourable coverage, and they aren’t protected from critical reporting. Our approach to labelling follows the CAP Code and is set out in our Disclaimer and on our Advertise With Us page.

Some articles contain affiliate links. Products are chosen on merit before any affiliate link is added, and articles with affiliate links carry a clear disclosure.

The Cerge Media shop sells our own branded merchandise. It is run separately from our editorial work, and we don’t review or promote our own products in our journalism.

Images and copyright

We use photographs that are free to use under open licences, such as those from Wikimedia Commons, or press images supplied for editorial use. We credit photographers and licences in captions. We don’t take images from other publications or social media without permission. More detail is in our Copyright & DMCA Policy.

Our writing is original. We don’t copy other publications’ text, and quotations from other sources are kept short and attributed.

Contributors

Freelance and guest contributors are held to the same standards as our own team. They must disclose any conflicts of interest and confirm that their work is original. Our Write for Us page sets out what we expect.

Comments

We welcome reader comments and moderate them to keep discussion civil and lawful. We remove comments that are abusive, defamatory, discriminatory, spam or off-topic, as described in our Terms and Conditions.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about our journalism, please email [email protected] with “Editorial complaint” in the subject line. Tell us which article you’re concerned about and why. We will review it and respond, and if we find we have breached this policy we will put it right.