Editorial policy

This page explains how European Headline finds, writes, checks and corrects its stories, so that you know what you are reading.

Where stories come from

Every story starts from a published report, an official announcement or a press release. The editorial team chooses the sources and sets the rules that every story follows. A story must be about Europe: the European Union and its institutions, the governments, companies, people and places of any European country, or a development elsewhere that directly affects Europe.

How we write a story

We write our own short account of the facts in the report. We do not copy its wording. We skip pages behind a paywall and pages that a publisher has asked us not to use. If a publisher asks us to remove a story or an image, we remove it.

Checks before publishing

Before a story is published, its text is compared with the report it was written from. The checks cover:

• numbers, amounts, percentages, currencies, dates and units;
• names of people, companies, agencies, places and job titles;
• quotes, which must appear in the report and stay short;
• claims, causes and forecasts, which must be stated in the report;
• tone, so that a story does not promote a company or give advice.

A story that fails a check is not published. Checks reduce mistakes but cannot remove them. If you find a mistake, please tell us.

What we do not publish

• opinion, commentary, reviews and letters;
• tips, price targets and calls to buy or sell anything;
• sponsored content presented as news;
• stories that cannot be traced to a published report.

Names on stories

Each story carries the name of a member of the editorial team, who answers for it. Meet the team on the team page.

Withdrawn stories

If a story should not have been published, or cannot be fixed, we withdraw it. A withdrawn story keeps its web address, so an old link never leads to a different story. The address shows a notice and answers with HTTP status 410, which tells search engines that the page is gone for good.

Advertising

Advertising, where it appears, is separate from stories and does not change what we write.