Editorial Guidelines
How stories are commissioned, sourced and checked, and the standards every piece published here is held to.
These guidelines govern everything published under the MKV Digital Gulf Bulletin masthead. They are public because a reader is entitled to know how the work in front of them was produced.
Independence
We are editorially independent. No advertiser, investor, sponsor or commercial partner sees a story before publication, and none has ever been given the opportunity to alter one. We do not publish sponsored content that resembles reporting. Where a commercial relationship exists with an organisation we are covering, it is disclosed in the article itself.
Sourcing
Every factual claim in a story traces to one of three things: a document we have read, a person we have spoken to, or a dataset we can name. Where a claim rests on a single anonymous source, we say so.
We prefer primary documents to summaries of them. Where a filing, a tender, a regulation or a financial statement is public, we read it rather than the coverage of it.
Anonymity
We grant anonymity where a source faces a credible professional or personal risk, and not for convenience. When we do, we tell the reader why the source is anonymous and what their vantage point is — "a senior operations manager at a competing terminal" rather than "a source".
Numbers
Figures are attributed. Estimates are labelled as estimates. Where we calculate something ourselves, we describe the method. We do not repeat a number because it has been widely repeated.
Artificial intelligence
We use AI tools for research assistance, transcription and copy-editing. We do not publish AI-generated reporting, and no story is published without a named human editor having read it in full and taken responsibility for it. AI is never a source.
Right of reply
Any organisation or individual facing criticism in a story is contacted before publication and given a reasonable period to respond. If a response arrives after publication, we add it.
Conflicts of interest
Journalists disclose holdings, prior employment and personal relationships relevant to their beat to the editor, and recuse themselves where a conflict cannot be managed by disclosure.
Corrections
See our corrections policy. In short: we correct errors promptly, in place, and we say what changed.