Progress Publishing: Editorial, Ethics, and Independence Policy

Governing the Bedford Independent and the Bedford Clanger

Progress Publishing is committed to independent, unbiased, and public-interest journalism across Bedford Borough. We report on the issues that matter, highlight the community’s achievements, and constructively scrutinise where improvements are needed.

Our newsroom operates under the regulatory oversight of IMPRESS and adheres strictly to the IMPRESS Standards Code.

To preserve the trust of our readers and news sources, this policy defines our standards of conduct, editorial integrity, legal compliance, and commercial independence.

This policy applies to all staff, freelance contributors, commercial partners, and volunteers representing Progress Publishing.

We maintain an open newsroom culture: anyone working with Progress Publishing may challenge editorial decisions or raise concerns regarding compliance with this code.

We developed the policies governing our ethics and editorial independence for all our publications by researching and adapting policies from several organisations committed to editorial independence, accuracy, and integrity.

These include:

IMPRESS	The Trust Project	ICNN
Chalkbeat	The Guardian	The Telegraph
NUJ	The Centre for Investigative Reporting	Progress Publishing Media Literacy Series

1. Revenue Transparency & Editorial Independence

To maintain independent journalism, Progress Publishing operates a multi-stream business model. Financial support, regardless of its source or scale, never influences editorial decisions, story selection, or journalistic scrutiny.

1.1 Revenue Sources

Our operations are funded through:

• Reader contributions and subscriptions.
• Grants and funding from independent foundations.
• Display advertising (website banners, print editions, email newsletters, and social channels).
• Advertorials and sponsored content (clearly demarcated commercial copy).
• Commercial event sponsorships.
• Job listings.
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Patrons.
• Standalone sponsored publications and special commercial editions.

1.2 Grants, donations, and major investments

• Editorial Firewall: Contributors, grant-makers, and equity investors have no right to review, alter, or influence editorial coverage. Financial contributions offer no immunity from critical reporting or investigation should public-interest reporting warrant it.
• Anonymity and Disclosure: Investors seeking a purely commercial return may remain anonymous. However, if any individual or organisation donates £5,000 or more per annum, we will publish their name and the exact contribution in our public annual report.
• Institutional Grants: When we receive funding through institutional grants, we publish the grantor’s identity, the grant’s monetary value, and its specific operational purpose.

1.3 Commercial Advertising and Sponsored Content

• Visual Separation: We strictly separate commercial messaging from editorial copy. Display adverts appear in designated advertising spaces in print, on our websites, and in email digests.
• Advertorial Labelling: Articles or features paid for by commercial partners are clearly labelled with the byline “Paid for content” at the top, and concluded with the explicit wording: “Advertising feature with [Client Name]”. On social media, all commercial posts use platform partnership tags, #Ad, or clear explanatory text.
• Views Expressed: The views expressed in paid content do not represent the editorial stance of Progress Publishing, The Bedford Independent, or The Bedford Clanger.
• Right of Scrutiny & Refusal: Commercial clients agree as a contractual condition that advertising purchases confer zero editorial leverage. We reserve the absolute right to reject, cancel, or remove any advertisement deemed misleading, unlawful, defamatory, fraudulent, or inconsistent with the public interest.

1.4 Corporate Patrons

• Through our Patron Scheme, local businesses support community journalism under a minimum three-year Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agreement.
• Patrons receive specific acknowledged benefits (e.g., directory billing, recruitment discounts, and an inaugural executive profile feature).
• Patronage confers no immunity from scrutiny, nor does it afford any input into news decisions. We publicly list current patrons on our website.

1.5 Political Advertising

• Alongside our regular columns from local political leaders, we accept political party advertising during and outside election cycles.
• Content Rules: Political advertisements must be transparently identified as such and comply with Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) principles and Electoral Commission rules. They must focus constructively on the promoting party’s policies and must not be used as attack ads against rival candidates.
• Values Test: Progress Publishing reserves the right to decline political advertising from parties or organisations that undermine democratic norms, individual liberties, equal rights, and the rule of law.

2. Editorial Standards, Verification & Sourcing

Our journalism aims to inform public debate, correct misinformation, and give residents the verified facts needed to participate in civic life.

2.1 The Verification Standard

Reporters must approach every story with critical thinking and verify facts against credible source documents. Before publication, journalists must test their reporting with five questions:

1. How do I know this to be true?
2. Where is the verifiable evidence?
3. Who is the primary source, and what is their direct knowledge or agenda?
4. What supporting documentation (legal filings, council minutes, data) exists?
5. Have those affected been given a fair and timely right of reply?

2.2 Original Reporting vs. Social Media Sourcing

• Leads, Not Stories: Social media posts, forum threads, local Facebook groups, and neighbourhood messaging boards are tip-offs, not finished news. Progress Publishing does not aggregate, scrape, or “rehash” social media posts into standalone news articles.
• Independent Corroboration: When a community matter emerges on social channels, journalists must report independently: interviewing primary sources, seeking official records, assessing context, and obtaining on-the-record verification.
• Copyright and Fair Dealing: In strict adherence to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, our publications do not take or republish photographs or videos from social media accounts without express written permission from the copyright holder. Fair dealing exceptions for reporting current events do not apply to photographs.
• Protecting Victims: We do not republish personal social media tributes, family images, or memorial posts connected to sudden deaths, accidents, or personal tragedies without the explicit consent of the next of kin.

2.3 Press Releases and Churnalism

• We do not publish incoming media releases as “copy-and-paste” news.
• Every media release must undergo substantial journalistic review, context-checking, and original rewriting.
• Reporters must critically assess claims, independently verify factual assertions, and examine the issue through a local Bedford Borough lens, obtaining original comments from independent stakeholders where appropriate.

2.4 Integrity, Sourcing, and Conflicts of Interest

• Transparency of Identity: Reporters must identify themselves immediately as journalists representing The Bedford Independent or The Bedford Clanger when contacting the public or official bodies.
• Source Protection & Anonymity: Anonymous quotes are granted only when there is a legitimate public interest or a credible risk to the source’s safety or livelihood. Anonymity agreements must be approved by the senior editorial team. Reporters must share source identities with editors to evaluate credibility while safeguarding legal privilege.
• Right of Reply: Anyone facing significant criticism or allegations of wrongdoing in our reporting must be given a fair, reasonable, and documented opportunity to respond before publication. Where a response is refused or unanswered, this will be stated objectively in the article.
• Conflicts of Interest: Editorial team members must not report on, edit, or shape stories involving organisations, campaigns, or individuals with whom they share a financial, commercial, political, or close personal connection. Any potential conflict must be disclosed immediately to the senior editor.
• Gifts, Hospitality, and Payments: Editorial staff will never pay for access to information. Staff must decline gifts, hospitality, or travel of more than nominal value from sources or commercial entities. All permitted gifts or review items must be recorded in our internal register.
• Political Impartiality: Editorial staff are prohibited from active membership in political parties, participating in partisan demonstrations, running for political office, or donating to political candidates.

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Progress Publishing views artificial intelligence as an assistive technology. It is a tool to support operational efficiency, never an autonomous author or a replacement for human news judgment.

3.1 The Assistive Principle & Editorial Accountability

• Human-in-the-Loop: A human journalist and editor are involved at every stage of research, drafting, and publication. An AI system cannot be credited as an author or held editorially accountable.
• Editorial Liability: Staff are reminded that generative models can invent citations, misstate facts, and produce subtle hallucinations. The human journalist whose byline appears on the article bears full personal and legal responsibility for the accuracy of every word published.

3.2 Permitted Assistive Uses

Editorial team members may use approved generative AI tools (such as Google Gemini) strictly for:

• Transcribing recorded audio and video interviews.
• Assisting with structural synthesis, proofreading, and stylistic drafts of incoming public-record announcements or verified press releases.
• Formatting and querying complex public datasets, spreadsheets, or long-form local authority reports to identify leads for human investigation.
• Assisting in brainstorming headlines, summary bullet points, and social sharing text.

3.3 Prohibitions on AI Use

• No Autonomous Writing: AI must never draft original news reports, investigations, or commentary without direct, comprehensive human writing, contextualisation, and fact-checking.
• No Synthetic Media in News Coverage: We do not use generative AI to create synthetic photographic images, illustrations, audio, or video representing real people, real-world events, or actual local locations in our news reporting.
• Not a Primary Source: Never treat AI output as factual evidence. Every name, historical event, date, quote, and statistic generated or summarised by AI must be cross-referenced against primary human or documentary sources.

3.4 Data Protection & Source Confidentiality

In compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018/UK GDPR and our ethical obligations:

• Reporters must never enter confidential source notes, unpublished interview transcripts, off-the-record briefings, or unredacted personal data into public generative AI models.
• Information entered into third-party AI prompts must be restricted entirely to already-public documents, verified on-the-record press material, and general administrative queries.

3.5 Third-Party and Contributed AI Content

• Mandatory Disclosure: External contributors, PR agencies, public bodies, and advertisers must disclose upon submission if generative AI tools were used to produce, structure, or generate any portion of submitted articles, letters, or creative materials.
• Supplier Warranty & Editorial Vetting: While third parties warrant the originality, legal compliance, and factual accuracy of their submissions, Progress Publishing exercises complete editorial oversight. We will reject or rewrite any supplied copy that fails our standards of accuracy and local relevance.
• Reader Transparency: Where contributed, advertorial, or syndicated content makes substantial use of generative AI, it will carry an explicit disclosure statement (e.g., “This supplied feature contains copy drafted with the assistance of generative AI and was reviewed by our editorial team”).

4. Community Participation, Moderation & Opinion

We believe local debate should be accessible, lively, and civil.

4.1 Social Media Moderation & Legal Notice-and-Takedown

Progress Publishing operates official pages and groups across various networks (including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads, and local community groups).

Progress Publishing has several social media channels.

Facebook	Threads	Instagram	Bluesky	LinkedIn
Bedford Independent (page)	Bedford Independent	Bedford Independent	Bedford Independent	Bedford Independent
Bedford Clanger (page)		Bedford Clanger
We Are Bedford (group)
Mums and Dads of Bedford (group)

• Community Standards: We welcome diverse views, but will remove comments that contain hate speech, profanity, unsubstantiated commercial accusations, personal abuse, harassment, or persistent trolling.
• Legal Protections (Defamation & Contempt): As a regulated publisher under UK law, we actively moderate discussions to prevent breaches of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 (e.g., naming protected parties or prejudicing active criminal trials before Bedford Magistrates’ Court or Luton Crown Court) and the Defamation Act 2013.
• Notice-and-Takedown Protocol: If you believe a user comment on any of our channels is defamatory, unlawful, or in breach of court reporting restrictions, notify our team immediately at news@bedfordindependent.co.uk with a direct link and screenshot. We will promptly remove valid complaints.
• Safety & Enforcement: We reserve the right to close comments on contentious articles once productive debate has concluded. Individuals who make threats of violence, publish hate speech, or persistently breach our rules will have their comments documented, their accounts permanently blocked, and, where appropriate, details referred to Bedfordshire Police.

4.2 Letters to the Editor

The letters page provides a public forum for Bedford Borough residents to discuss matters raised in our coverage or affecting the area.

• Submission Criteria: Letters must be from residents of Bedford Borough (or accredited representatives of national organisations addressing local issues).
• Identity Verification: Writers must provide their full legal name and residential address. For publication, we print only the author’s name and their specific village, neighbourhood, or street. Pseudonyms or anonymous letters are published only under exceptional circumstances with the editor’s express agreement.
• Editorial Discretion: We reserve the right to edit letters for length, grammar, legal compliance, and clarity, ensuring the original meaning is maintained. We will reject letters containing personal abuse, defamation, or unsubstantiated factual claims.

4.3 Opinion & Columnists

• To maintain a clear boundary between impartial news reporting and subjective commentary, all op-eds and opinion columns will carry a distinct byline identifying them as an “Editorial Column” or “Opinion”.
• Columnists are free to express provocative and humorous viewpoints, but their columns remain subject to the IMPRESS Standards Code, our corrections policy, and UK media law regarding factual accuracy and fair comment.

5. Corrections, Accountability & Regulatory Governance

Our readers must have complete confidence in the integrity of our journalism. When errors occur, we correct them swiftly, visibly, and unapologetically.

5.1 Corrections and Clarifications

• We make minor typographic fixes that do not alter a story’s substance directly.
• For substantive factual errors, we amend the text immediately and append a prominent, dated correction note at the foot of the article explaining what was changed and why.
• If an article requires a formal retraction or apology, we will publish it prominently on our website and in corresponding newsletters or print editions.

5.2 Regulatory Oversight & Complaints

Progress Publishing and its titles (Bedford Independent and Bedford Clanger) are regulated by IMPRESS, the independent press regulator approved by the Press Recognition Panel under the Royal Charter.

• Filing a Complaint: If you believe an article has breached our Editorial and Ethics Policy or the IMPRESS Standards Code, please submit details to:
  • Email: news@bedfordindependent.co.uk
  • Postal Address: Editorial Complaints, Progress Publishing, [Insert Registered Address, Bedford, UK]
• Escalation to IMPRESS: If you are dissatisfied with our newsroom’s final response to your complaint, you may refer the matter directly to IMPRESS for formal adjudication:
  • Website: impressorg.com
  • Email: complaints@impressorg.com

Adopted: May 2020
Last updated: November 2026