Editorial Standards & Ethics

How we gather, check and publish the news, and what readers can expect from every story we put our name to.

Our principles

• Accuracy — we publish only what we have checked, and we correct mistakes openly and quickly.
• Independence — editorial decisions are made by journalists alone, never by funders, advertisers, politicians or institutions.
• Fairness — we give people and organisations we report on a fair chance to respond before publication, and we report their response.
• Transparency — we explain how we work, who owns and funds us, and any conflict of interest that touches a story.
• Public interest — we report on the European media because how journalism works affects how citizens understand their democracy.
• Respect — we avoid sensationalism and write for a broad, international readership.

Verification and fact-checking

• We confirm facts with at least two independent sources, or with documents, wherever possible.
• We record interviews or take notes, and keep them. Quotes are checked against the recording or notes before publication.
• We name our sources and link to original documents, reports and statements, so readers can check them.
• Figures, dates, names and titles are checked against primary sources (official registers, institutional websites, court documents).
• Images are checked for origin and credited or are produced by ourselves. We do not publish manipulated images; illustrations are labelled as such.
• Before publication, the other editor reads the story.

News, analysis and opinion

Every article is labelled so readers know what they are reading, notably:

• News — factual reporting of what happened, who said what and why it matters.
• Analysis — explanation and interpretation by a journalist, based on reported facts.
• Opinion and commentary — a clearly argued point of view, labelled as opinion.
• Profile — in-depth reporting about one person or organisation.

Unnamed sources

We prefer sources who speak on the record. Anonymity is a last resort, used under the Belgian Act of 7 April 2005 on the protection of journalistic sources and the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).

• When: only when the source faces serious physical, professional or legal retaliation, and the information is of clear public interest and cannot be obtained another way. Never for personal attacks, speculation or opinion.
• Approval: an editor must know the source’s identity and approve the use of anonymity.
• Corroboration: information from a single unnamed source is confirmed by documents or by a second, independent source.
• Description: we tell readers as much as we can about the source without identifying them — for example, “a senior EU official not authorised to speak publicly” — never just “sources say”.
• Protection: we will not reveal a confidential source’s identity.

Bylines

Stories normally carry the name of the journalist who wrote them, linked to their author page. As a small newsroom, some stories carry the shared byline “BraveNews Staff”:

• routine updates, briefings and stories written jointly;
• stories where naming the reporter would expose them to a credible risk of physical harm, harassment or legal intimidation, in line with EU anti-SLAPP guidance.

A staff byline never lowers our standards: the same checks, corrections and legal responsibility apply.

Independence and conflicts of interest

• We do not accept payment, gifts or favours in exchange for coverage.
• We do not publish sponsored or paid-for editorial content. Advertising is clearly marked and separate from journalism.
• When a journalist has a personal, financial or professional link to a person or organisation in a story, we either assign the story to someone else or disclose the link in the story.
• Because we report on fellow journalists and media organisations, we disclose when a story concerns an organisation we work with or belong to (for example, a press club or association).

Use of AI

Journalists research, report and write our stories. We may use AI tools to help with checking spelling and grammar, suggesting headlines, summaries and tags, and transcribing interviews.

• A journalist reviews every suggestion before anything is published; AI never publishes on its own.
• We do not use AI to invent quotes or create realistic images of real people or events.
• We do not send unpublished stories involving confidential sources to AI services.
• Where AI helped noticeably with a story, a note at the end of the story says so.

Protection of minors

We follow Belgian and European law protecting minors. We do not identify children in sensitive stories, and we publish images of minors only with the consent of a parent or guardian and after checking that publication is lawful and in the child’s interest.

Diversity

We want our reporting to reflect the diversity of Europe: in the people we quote, the countries and languages we cover, and the journalists we work with. We seek out voices from smaller member states and from groups under-represented in the Brussels press corps.

Staffing report

As a two-person newsroom we cannot publish meaningful statistics, but we publish our baseline every year:

	Current situation	Our commitment
Gender balance	We currently operate as unpaid volunteers.	Equal representation if we take on staff
Languages	English (main language)	Reporting in the main EU and Belgian official languages
Freelancers	Diversity criteria applied to all commissions	Diverse contributors prioritised for outside assignments
Ownership	Owned by founder Dafydd ab Iago	Owners disclosed in line with the European Media Freedom Act

Corrections and feedback

When we get something wrong, we correct it openly. Read our corrections and right of reply policy, or send tips and feedback via our contact page.

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Last updated: 3 October 2026. We review these standards at least once a year.

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