Editorial Policy

Last updated 5 November 2026

BreakingHour is a round-the-clock world news publication. Our job is to report what has happened, accurately and quickly — never to chase a headline at the expense of the facts, and never to tell readers what to think about the news.

Verification comes before publication, and speed never overrides it. No breaking claim is published until it has been checked against at least two independent primary sources — a wire service, a news agency, an official statement, a public document, or direct evidence we have examined ourselves. Two reports that both trace back to the same single source do not count as two sources.

Claims that rest on a single source are held, attributed explicitly, or not published at all. A single-source report is published only with clear attribution — for example, that a named outlet or official reports it — and only when the source is credible and the claim is plainly labelled as reported rather than confirmed. Rumours, social-media-only claims, and reports resting on a single anonymous source are never published as fact.

If verification cannot be completed in time for the next publishing slot, we publish the verified subset of the story with clear attribution, or we hold the story to the next slot. Being second and right beats being first and wrong, and a gap in the publishing record is preferable to a wrong story that has to be retracted.

Every news and live article names its primary sources on the article page, so readers can check our work against the same material we used. Sources are linked wherever they are publicly available. We do not present the output of another outlet as our own reporting, and we do not republish rumours or speculation as though they were confirmed.

Developing stories are covered as live stories: the same article is updated in place with timestamped live updates, newest first, and the article carries a visible updated time. A new article is written only when a story materially changes phase or a distinct follow-up angle emerges — not for every new development.

Some drafts are prepared with AI assistance, which is how a round-the-clock operation keeps pace. Every AI-assisted draft is reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication, and no article is published from an unverified claim. AI is a drafting aid, never a source: a fact is only publishable when it traces to a primary source a human has checked.

We do not accept payment in exchange for favourable coverage, and commercial relationships never influence what we cover or what we conclude. We carry no affiliate content and no sponsored stories. BreakingHour reports on governments, companies and institutions regardless of any relationship, and our coverage is not aligned with any political party, government or campaign.

Images on BreakingHour are editorial illustrations or photographs tied to the specific story. An image is never presented as depicting an event it does not show, and we do not use disaster or conflict imagery for stories about something else. Where an image is illustrative rather than documentary, the article makes that clear.

Every article shows when it was published and when it was last updated. When we get something wrong, our Corrections Policy explains how to report it and what happens next — including how corrections to live stories are handled.