Editorial Standards & Ethics
What these standards are for
This page is the rulebook the AN TV NEWS desk works to. It is not decoration for a footer. It is the set of habits that decide what gets published, how it is sourced, what a headline is allowed to say, and where the line runs between news and opinion. We publish it because a reader is entitled to know the standard we hold ourselves to, and to hold us to it when we fall short.
None of it is unusual. It is the ordinary discipline of honest journalism, written down plainly so it survives a busy night. When speed and accuracy pull against each other, which on a breaking story they always do, these rules exist to make sure accuracy keeps winning.
Sourcing: primary first, and named where possible
We prefer the primary source to the account of it. Where a story rests on a document, a filing, a ruling, a statement or a data release, we go to the thing itself rather than to someone’s summary of it, and we link to it so you can too. Where we cannot reach the primary source, we say what we are relying on instead.
We prefer named sources to anonymous ones. Anonymity is granted for a reason, not for convenience: because a source faces a real risk, and because the information matters enough to justify the reader trusting our judgement instead of a name. When we use an anonymous source we tell you why they are unnamed and what vantage point they speak from, and a single anonymous claim is not enough to carry a serious allegation on its own. Sources are never identified to anyone outside the desk, advertisers and lawyers included.
Wire discipline
Most breaking news reaches every outlet through the same few agencies, and running a wire item is not the same as confirming it. When we publish agency copy we have not independently checked, we attribute it plainly to the agency, and we do not dress a single wire flash up as settled fact. When we have added our own reporting, we say what we checked and what changed. A story that simply repeats what everyone else is repeating is labelled for what it is, so a reader can weigh it accordingly.
Headlines carry the same burden as the story
The headline is the part of a story that travels furthest and is read by the most people, many of whom read nothing else. So it is held to the same standard as the article beneath it. A headline may be sharp, but it may not claim more than the story can prove, strip away a qualifier the facts require, or turn an allegation into a verdict. If the headline says more than the piece supports, the headline is wrong, and we change it. The same rule applies to the summary, the social post and the push alert, because those travel too.
News and opinion are separate, and labelled
Reporting tells you what happened. Opinion tells you what someone thinks about it. We keep the two apart, and anything that is analysis, comment or opinion is labelled as such so you are never left guessing whether you are reading a fact or a view. A reporter’s job is to be fair to the evidence, not to win an argument, and our news stories are written to inform the reader rather than to steer them.
Fairness does not mean false balance. Giving equal weight to a well-supported finding and a fringe claim is its own kind of distortion. We weigh sources by their evidence, we represent significant disagreement honestly, and we do not manufacture a fifty-fifty where the facts are not fifty-fifty.
Fairness, right of reply and the presumption of innocence
When a story makes a serious allegation against a person or an organisation, we put it to them before publication and give them a genuine opportunity to respond, and we carry their response fairly. Where they decline or do not reply in time, the story says so. In matters before a court we respect the presumption of innocence, we distinguish an accusation from a conviction, and we take care with anything that could prejudice a fair trial.
We take particular care with the vulnerable: victims of crime, especially sexual offences, children, and people caught up in a story through no choice of their own. Being newsworthy for a day does not strip a private person of their dignity, and we weigh the public interest against the harm before we publish a name or an image.
Independence, conflicts and gifts
Our journalism is not for sale and is not steered by anyone who pays us. Advertisers do not see stories before publication, are not told what is coming, and get no say in coverage, a wall described in full on our advertise page and our ownership and funding page. When we cover a company that advertises with us, the story is written as if it did not.
Where a member of the team has a financial, personal or political interest in a story, they declare it and hand the story to someone else. We pay our own way: press trips, hosted stays and gifts beyond the trivial are declined, and where something is accepted and relevant, the story discloses it. Nobody here works for a party or a government on the side and edits its coverage by day.
Corrections, and how to hold us to this
These standards are only worth the paper if we admit it when we breach them. We correct in the open, on the original story, with a dated note, and we do not delete our mistakes. The mechanics are in our corrections policy, and the way we test a claim before it ever reaches you is in our fact-checking policy.
If you think a story falls short of what is written here, tell us, and be specific. Write to support@antv.news with the link and the passage that troubles you. Other ways to reach the desk are on our contact page. The standard is public so that you can use it against us, and we would rather you did than let a lapse stand.
Last updated: August 2026
