The purpose of our journalism is to serve readers with new, useful and interesting information.
We are writing for an audience of decision-makers of all calibers – from solo founders to corporate managers – aiming to get useful and actionable information. The English version is aimed at local expats and at an international audience that may be interested in Romania.
Accountability
All of our authors are real, reputable journalists or creative writers, with verifiable track records and subject matter expertise. Standard never allows the use of pseudonyms or generic bylines.
We don't pursue watchdog-type investigative work (i.e. actively looking to reveal wrongdoing) and we never publish articles with defamatory intent. However, we are aware that journalistic work often turns out to be inconvenient for third parties, in which case the rights to information and the readers' best interest take precedence.
Liability for the content published ultimately rests with the respective authors, however the platform will do its best to mitigate possible errors. The executive publisher makes a firm commitment to mediate, de-escalate and provide fair remedy for any party harmed.
Ethics
We aim to report truthfully and accurately, in good-faith, always cross-checking sources, platforming opposing voices and pushing back on hype or doom. Our journalists are expected to conduct themselves with integrity and professionalism in all of their work.
Authors are required to disclose any potential or perceived conflict of interest in the articles they publish, or refrain from publishing if the conflict is material. They cannot accept meaningful compensation from organizations or persons featured in the articles. Perks such as travel and accommodation for the purpose of documentation must be disclosed within the article's contents while low-value items – such as pens, coffee or cookies – are passable. Journalists may interview and feature sources affiliated with advertising customers – at arm's length – but will not take directions from them.
We deliberately keep away from both confrontational and promotional topics, aiming to find value for the readers somewhere in between. We do not engage in political disputes or culture wars.
Diversity
We include diverse views, in order to make an accurate depiction of the political and societal trends that drive business. We aim to speak to people from all walks of life, from leaders and professionals to workers and marginalized groups.
We value free markets, development and entrepreneurship while at the same time we give due credit to hard work at all levels and are empathetic to poverty and suffering.
In our own newsroom, we welcome diversity and have a strict non-discrimination policy regarding ethnicity, race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.
Feedback
We are always in touch with our readers via our social network presence. We take feedback – both positve and negative – and act on it.
We may use input from our user to surface stories, discover relevant context, include corrections, gauge public opinion and sentiment guding us in our coverage.
Verifiable information provided to us by readers – text, image, video, audio – may be used directly in the writing of our articles, with proper credit or attribution.
Sources
Every article will feature one mandatory prominent newsmaker and ideally at least three quoted people with diverse or complementing views. Names will be linked to their respective social media profiles whenever available.
Incidental interlocutors, who only contribute trivia, might be named by just their first name or not at all, while the identity of minors and vulnerable people may be obfuscated.
All our meaningful sources are named, with no anonymous sources quoted for factual data. When sources would not have their identites disclosed, they enjoy full protection under European law and statute, with us taking full responsibility for obtaining quotable information.
Illustration
We use authentic photos, of people, objects and places we are writing about. Our preference goes to featuring people while doing what they're good at.
Photos can be taken by our own reporters, provided by our sources and readers, or bought from professional photographers. We don't use stock photos unless they happen to depict the subject at issue. In the rare cases we might use a picture of one thing because it looks "just like" the other, we will make sure to clearly stipulate that.
AI-generated or manipulated images are strictly prohibited, except for the illustration of generative image capability, in which case they will be clearly labelled.
Use of AI
We are enthusiastic about AI and even have some tools integrated directly in our CMS, but we don't trust language models to do the core journalistic work; agency and intent stay exclusively with the author.
AI is used to gather data, sort through it, suggest approaches and ideas. However, we check information against every single original source and pen the wording ourselves.
We confidently use AI for proofreading, translations and even abridging of long texts that already baked in the needed reporting work. We don't allow LLMs to generate brand-new journalistic reporting.
Factchecking
We aim to be precise with words and craft engaging but accurate headlines. Our writers conduct their own fact checking, using their judgement and experience, guided by our publishing principles and ethics policy.
A strict two-pairs of eyes rule is enforced, where an author will refrain from hitting the publish button themselves, leaving that to a peer acting as senior editor who would read the piece, provide feedback and require improvements.
We actively monitor for public feedback on our social-media channels to be timely notified if we got anything wrong.
Corrections
Typos or taxonomy adjustments are corrected silently and do not alter public-facing timestamps. Any factual mistakes will be promptly and transparently corrected, with an editor's note and a new 'updated' timestamp.
Should a mentioned subject think they were misrepresented, they can send us their right of reply, to be published along with the article. If the objection is fair, we'll publish it along with our own assesment. If we deem the objection frivolous, it won't be published.
If we get things wrong, we will add an extended editor's note at the beginning and preserve the disavowed content for public record. We will never delete the articles per se, and will fight in court any legal requirement to do so.
Kindly notify us of any breaches or errors at policy@romania.st