Approval and oversight authority: KhabarOnline Editorial Board
Public version approved: 27 Mehr 1405 / October 19, 2026
Last updated: 27 Mehr 1405 / October 19, 2026

This document sets out KhabarOnline’s mission, principles of professional ethics, and standards for producing, publishing, correcting, and updating its content. Its purpose is to preserve audience trust, improve news accuracy, strengthen transparency, and clarify editorial responsibilities.

These policies apply to original and republished content on KhabarOnline’s website and official accounts. Reporters, writers, desk editors, senior editors, photographers, multimedia producers, and social media staff must comply with the standards relevant to their responsibilities. The requirements governing transparency in commercial content are also binding on the departments responsible for advertising.

Part One: About KhabarOnline and Its Editorial Approach

1. Our Mission

KhabarOnline began operating in 1387 in the Iranian calendar (2008–2009). As a privately owned news outlet, its mission is to produce, select, verify, analyse, and publish credible news and reporting on major developments in Iran and around the world.

KhabarOnline combines news reporting with analysis. Alongside timely coverage, it seeks to explain events within their political, social, economic, cultural, and human contexts, going beyond the superficial republication of news.

Its aim is to improve public understanding, strengthen citizens’ right to ask questions, and provide a basis for informed and responsible scrutiny of institutions, policies, and public decisions.

2. Legal Identity, Leadership, and Sources of Revenue

Role or item	Details
Licence holder	Alireza Moezzi
Managing Director	Hassan Lasjerdi
Editorial Board	Hassan Lasjerdi, Mohammad Mohajeri, Davoud Mohammadi, Mahmoud Zahiraldini, Mohammadreza Asadzadeh, Seyed Abdoljavad Mousavi
Office address	No. 25, 15th Street, Mirzaye Shirazi Street, Tehran, Iran
Telephone	+98 21 88306788 / +98 21 88306787

Head of Social Media: Mohammad Ashari
Head of IT: Pouria Shakeri
Monitoring: Zolfaqar Daneshi

Desk Editors

Desk	Editor
Politics	Mohammad Hassan Najmi
Economy	Zahra Ali-Akbari
Culture	Zeinab Kazemkhah
Society	Mastoureh Baradaran Nasiri
International	Shahab Shahsavari
Sport	Morteza Rezaei
Science and Technology	Farzad Mozaffari
Provinces	Hadi Moeirinejad
Multimedia	Navid Sarraf

KhabarOnline’s revenue comes primarily from display advertising, advertorials, and sponsored content. Commercial relationships are governed by the “Advertising and Sponsored Content” section of this document and do not influence editorial decisions.

3. Professional Independence and Public Responsibility

Within the framework of national law, KhabarOnline is committed to professional independence, accuracy, fairness, transparency, and accountability.

Professional independence does not mean having no editorial perspective. It means that political, economic, advertising, or personal interests must not lead to the distortion of facts, the withholding of essential information, or the publication of unsupported claims.

Decisions about selecting, publishing, headlining, correcting, or removing news content rest with editorial leadership. Commercial and advertising relationships, as well as external pressure, do not form the basis of these decisions. Action taken to comply with legal obligations, protect privacy, or prevent harm is governed by Part Five of this document.

4. Scrutiny, Diversity of Views, and the Distinction Between News and Opinion

Informed scrutiny of institutions, public officials, political parties, movements, and public decisions is part of KhabarOnline’s journalistic responsibility. Such scrutiny is grounded in evidence, reasoning, fairness, and professional language, and avoids insults, humiliation, defamation, and distortion.

On contested issues, relevant and credible viewpoints are represented in proportion to their significance and evidential support. Fairness does not mean giving unsupported claims the same weight as documented information.

KhabarOnline distinguishes between news, reporting, analysis, opinion, interviews, fact-checks, and advertising content. The type of content must be identifiable through a label, an author introduction, or a clear explanation.

Publishing an opinion piece or interview does not necessarily imply endorsement of every view expressed. Nevertheless, the newsroom remains responsible for accurately representing the content, quoting faithfully, and complying with these policies.

5. Accuracy Before Speed

Speed matters in news reporting, but it is no substitute for accuracy. In breaking news, the priorities are to publish verified information, attribute claims clearly, state the limits of available information, and update responsibly.

Audience trust is built through the newsroom’s daily conduct: accurate reporting, headlines faithful to the content, clear sourcing, visible corrections, and respect for human rights.

Part Two: Code of Professional Ethics

1. Accuracy and Truth-Seeking

News information is checked to a degree proportionate to the importance and sensitivity of the subject. Reporters and editors distinguish between established facts, source claims, analysis, and predictions, and preserve those distinctions in published content.

Any selection or omission of information must not alter the audience’s understanding of the facts.

2. Faithful Quotation and Use of Sources

Quotations, documents, data, images, and the work of others are used with their meaning, context, and attribution preserved.

Shortening or editing the language of a quotation must not change the speaker’s position, the subject of the statement, or its degree of certainty. Translations must likewise remain faithful to the original.

KhabarOnline credits sources in the content it publishes. Republishing a claim from another outlet does not relieve KhabarOnline of its responsibility to assess and represent that claim accurately.

3. Fairness and the Right of Reply

For reports containing allegations, claims of wrongdoing or negligence, or specific criticism of individuals or institutions, efforts must be made to obtain a response before publication. The party concerned must be given an opportunity to respond that is proportionate to the urgency and complexity of the subject.

Responses are represented fairly and without distortion. Receiving a response does not create an obligation to publish insults, irrelevant personal information, or new and unverified claims.

The operational requirements for this principle are set out under “Right of Reply” in Part Four.

4. Transparent Correction of Errors

Once confirmed, errors affecting the meaning of a story, people’s reputations, or audience decisions are corrected without unnecessary delay. Such errors must not be addressed solely through silent changes to the text.

KhabarOnline distinguishes between correcting an error, adding new information, and copyediting, and provides readers with an explanation appropriate to the nature of the change.

5. Privacy and Human Dignity

Publishing personal information requires a journalistic need and a defensible public interest. Public curiosity alone does not justify an invasion of privacy.

Protective safeguards are observed when covering children, victims of violence, survivors of incidents, and vulnerable groups. Publication of names, images, or details that could identify these individuals and expose them to harm requires special review by editorial leadership.

6. Avoiding Discrimination and Unnecessary Harm

News language must not be degrading, hateful, or based on ethnic, religious, gender, age-related, or disability-related stereotypes.

Personal characteristics are mentioned only when meaningfully relevant to the story. Coverage of allegations and legal proceedings must respect the presumption of innocence and distinguish between an accused person, a convicted person, and a conviction that has become final.

7. Managing Conflicts of Interest

Newsroom members disclose to their direct supervisor any financial, family, organisational, or personal interests that could affect their coverage. Depending on the nature of the conflict, the desk editor or senior editor decides whether to reassign the story, arrange independent oversight, or disclose the relevant relationship to the audience.

Accepting money, gifts, or benefits in exchange for publishing, withholding, or changing the direction of editorial content is prohibited. Sponsored travel and outside work related to a journalist’s beat must be disclosed and reviewed in advance.

8. Responsible Use of Technology

Technology and artificial intelligence are supporting tools, not independent sources of truth or substitutes for human responsibility. The newsroom remains responsible for the accuracy and fairness of published content and for respecting people’s rights.

9. Accountability to the Audience

Error reports, correction requests, criticism, and replies are received and reviewed through designated channels. Readers reporting an error are not required to prove malicious intent on the part of the outlet. Providing the article’s address and an explanation of the issue is sufficient to initiate a review.

Part Three: Headlines, Leads, and Content Presentation

1. The Principle of Consistency

The headline, overline, subheadline, lead, body text, featured image, and image caption must provide a consistent and non-misleading representation of the content.

The headline’s main claim must be explained in the lead or opening section and adequately supported in the body. The headline must not exceed the evidence in scope, intensity, or degree of certainty.

This principle also applies to page titles in search results, meta descriptions, social sharing titles and descriptions, notifications, and other presentations of the content. Identical wording is not required, but differences must not create a conflict in meaning.

In many news feeds, search results, notifications, and recommendation surfaces, including Google Discover, readers may see only the headline and featured image or a short summary before clicking. The headline and image must therefore convey an accurate understanding of the essential news on their own, even if the reader does not read the lead or body. These elements need not use identical wording, but they must remain consistent in their claims, subjects, timing, conditions, and degree of certainty.

2. Preserving Attribution and Degree of Certainty

Distinctions between “claimed,” “proposed,” “under review,” “forecast,” “announced,” “approved,” and “implemented” must be preserved.

Publishing a statement by an official or expert does not amount to independent verification of its content. Where omitting the speaker’s name or position would make a claim appear to be an established fact, attribution must also be included in the headline.

In addition:

• A proposal must not be presented as a final decision.
• Approval must not be equated with the start of implementation.
• A prediction must not be presented as a certain outcome.
• A decision affecting one group must not be generalised to everyone.
• The subject or intended audience of a statement must not be changed.

3. Avoiding the Concealment of Key Information

Headlines must state the subject and the most important finding clearly. Deliberately withholding decisive information to manufacture curiosity is prohibited.

Some stories directly affect readers’ financial and household decisions, including reports on current prices, wages and salaries, retirement, subsidies, electronic food vouchers, loans, housing, and cars. Stricter rules apply to these stories:

• If a number, rate, or amount is the core of the story, the most important relevant figure must appear in the headline.
• If omitting the affected group or the status of a decision—proposal, approval, or implementation—would change the reader’s understanding, it must be made clear in the headline.
• If the date, reference time, or main condition is essential to understanding the story correctly, it must appear in the headline. Where reasonable headline-length limits prevent the inclusion of supplementary details, the main condition must appear in the headline and the details in the first sentence of the lead.
• Vague pronouns or references such as “these people,” “these cars,” “these provinces,” or “this figure” must not be used to conceal the subject or number unless the reference is identified within the headline itself.
• Questions such as “What is the price now?”, “How much is it?”, “How much per kilogram?”, or “Which group?” must not replace an answer already available in the story.

4. Question Headlines

Question headlines are not prohibited in themselves. They may be used in explanatory, analytical, educational, or fact-checking articles when they pose a genuine, specific question and the text provides an evidence-based answer or clearly explains the limits of the answer.

A question headline must not:

• Deliberately conceal a simple, definite answer already available in the story.
• Imply an unsupported claim or allegation by framing it as a question.
• Make an unconfirmed event appear more likely than the evidence warrants.
• Promise an answer that the text does not provide.

5. Sensational Language and the “Breaking” Label

Expressions such as “massive shock,” “unbelievable,” “market heart attack,” and “exploded” must not replace an accurate description of the facts.

Evaluative terms or words describing the intensity of an event may be used only when proportionate to the evidence and context. Quoting such language from a source must not be used as a way to create a misleading impression.

The “Breaking” label may be used only for a new, important, and time-sensitive development, with approval from the responsible editor. It must not be used to increase clicks, recirculate old news, or promote routine content.

6. Numbers, Dates, and Price Reporting

Whenever a number, amount, date, or affected group forms the core of a story, the headline must reflect the most important relevant information. Including every figure and detail is not necessary, as this can make the headline unnecessarily long or unclear.

In price and market reporting:

• The market, product, currency, and unit of measurement must be clear.
• The text must identify the source, the time the price was recorded, and its nature—for example, an official price, asking price, transaction price, or average.
• A price quoted by one seller or for one item must not be generalised to the entire market.
• In daily price reports, the headline must state the benchmark price or main change, and the report’s reference date must be clear to the reader.
• Price comparisons must identify the basis of comparison and the time period.
• Analytical expressions such as “price resistance” must have clear support and attribution and must not replace the actual price.
• For daily price reports updated throughout the day, the latest update time must appear at the top of the article, and significant price changes during the day must be summarised in the text.

7. Headline Promises and Page Content

If a headline promises a table, list of names, document, image, or video, that material must actually be present on the page and accessible to the reader.

Phrases such as “details” or “watch” must not replace the substance of the news or create an expectation of information that the page does not provide.

Ellipses, incomplete quotations, and the omission of decisive parts of a statement must not be used to change meaning or create artificial suspense.

8. Older Content and Republication

Older content must not be presented as a new event by changing its date, headline, or image.

Republication in connection with a new event must include a clear explanation of the original content’s date and context. Copyediting or technical changes alone do not constitute a news update.

Part Four: Source Verification and the Publication Process

1. Assessing Sources and Levels of Confidence

The reliability of a story is not determined solely by a source’s official status or the number of sources. Direct access, independence between sources, document authenticity, track record, verifiability, and conflicting evidence must all be assessed together.

Several outlets republishing the same claim do not constitute several independent sources. Official documents must also be checked for authenticity, date, scope of validity, and precise meaning.

Status of information	Editorial approach
Sufficient, verified evidence	Publish a factual statement within the limits supported by the evidence.
A specific statement or claim from an identified source	Publish with clear attribution, without turning the source’s claim into independent verification by the outlet.
Credible but incomplete preliminary information	Publish on a limited basis, explicitly identifying the information as preliminary and stating what remains unknown.
An unverified claim of public importance	As a rule, withhold publication pending verification. If a public explanation is necessary, obtain senior editorial approval and explicitly state the claim’s status.
An unsourced rumour or unverifiable content	Do not publish as news. Examine it only through fact-checking or an evidence-based explanation of the rumour.

The phrase “under investigation” is not permission to publish any unverified claim. Headlines must also avoid prominently repeating claims that the text cannot substantiate.

2. Pre-Publication Responsibilities

• The reporter or content producer is responsible for initial verification, recording sources, faithful quotation, and disclosing uncertainties or conflicts of interest.
• The desk editor is responsible for checking the sufficiency of the evidence, consistency between headline and body, degree of certainty, imagery, and compliance with publication standards.
• For high-risk content, the second reviewer must be someone other than the original preparer and must check the main claim and its presentation independently of the first review.
• The editor-in-chief or senior duty editor decides on the publication of sensitive material, professional disagreements, justified exceptions, and significant corrections.

High-risk content includes stories directly affecting financial decisions, health, safety, people’s reputations, or the rights of vulnerable groups. Sensitive reports on prices, wages, retirement, subsidies, loans, and decisions concerning implementation also require a second review.

Pre-publication checks follow this sequence:

Headline claim → Explanation in the lead → Evidence in the body → Source → Degree of certainty

3. Breaking News

Before and during the publication of breaking news, the newsroom:

1. Records the initial source and the time the information was received.
2. Assesses the story’s public importance and genuine urgency.
3. Obtains evidence appropriate to the statement being published.
4. Publishes only checked information and attributes claims to their sources.
5. Clearly states limitations and the preliminary nature of the information.
6. Adds new information to the page with an update time.
7. Publishes a visible correction if an error is confirmed.

Urgency must not lead to omitted attribution, incomplete information being presented as certain, or essential verification being abandoned. High-risk breaking news must be reviewed by the senior duty editor before publication.

4. Anonymous Sources

The use of anonymous sources is exceptional and requires all of the following conditions to be met:

• The subject has a defensible public interest.
• The source has direct and relevant access to the information claimed.
• There is a justified reason to protect the source’s identity.
• The editor-in-chief or responsible senior editor knows the source’s identity and level of access.
• The claim is supported by a document, an independent source, or credible evidence.
• The source’s possible motives and the risk of the outlet being used have been assessed.

Without revealing the source’s identity, the text must explain the source’s connection to the subject and the reason for confidentiality to the extent that it is safe to do so. Allegations against individuals or institutions must not rest solely on the claim of one anonymous source.

Information identifying confidential sources is shared only with those who need access and must not be entered into insecure tools or systems.

5. Right of Reply

For reports containing allegations or specific criticism, efforts to obtain a response must be genuine and documented. The newsroom records the main questions, contact method, time of contact, and response deadline.

If no response has been received by publication time, the text must accurately explain the efforts made. Saying “We are ready to publish a response” is not a substitute for attempting contact beforehand.

Publication before a response is received is permitted in cases of clear urgency and public interest, with senior editorial approval and an explanation of the contact efforts. Silence or failure to respond must not be presented as acceptance of an allegation.

A relevant response received after publication is reviewed and added to the article, or linked from it, with appropriate prominence.

Part Five: Corrections, Updates, and Content Removal

1. Distinguishing Corrections from Updates

• A correction addresses inaccurate information or misleading presentation.
• An update adds a new development or new information to a story that was accurately reported on the evidence available at the time of publication.
• Copyediting consists of changes that do not alter the meaning of the story.

The receipt of new information must not be used as a pretext for describing an earlier error as an “update.”

2. How Changes Are Disclosed

Type of change	Required action
Typographical, spacing, or punctuation error that does not change meaning	Correct the text; a public note is not required.
Error in a number, price, date, name, position, location, or another material fact	Correct the content and add a timestamped note.
Misinterpretation of a document, data, or quotation	Correct the relevant sections and clearly explain the earlier error.
Misleading headline, lead, or image	Correct the relevant presentations of the content and publish a visible correction notice.
Addition of new information or a change in the status of an event	Provide the time and a summary of the significant update.
Privacy violation, false allegation, or harmful content	Take immediate steps to reduce harm, conduct an editorial review, and provide an appropriate explanation, with an apology where warranted.

A correction note must explain what was wrong and what has replaced it. A general statement such as “The article has been corrected” is insufficient for significant changes.

If the correction concerns the headline’s main claim or the story’s conclusion, the note must appear prominently at the beginning of the article or near the corrected section.

3. Corrections Across All Relevant Presentations

Depending on the error, a correction may extend to the displayed headline, lead, body, image, page title, meta description, and social sharing titles.

On official social media accounts and other channels controlled by KhabarOnline, published errors must be corrected or addressed with a clear explanation appropriate to the channel’s capabilities. Changes to displays on systems outside KhabarOnline’s control may not be immediate.

For significant changes, the previous version, the time of the change, and the person who approved it must be recorded in the newsroom’s internal records. Keeping these records must not result in the public republication of private or harmful information.

4. Removal and Retraction

Complete removal of an article is not the normal substitute for correction. If an issue can be resolved through a correction and explanation, the default is to retain the article with a correction notice.

Removal or retraction may be authorised by the editor-in-chief in cases such as fundamentally unreliable content, a legal obligation, a serious privacy violation, or a substantial risk of harm.

Where possible, a clear explanation of the removal or retraction should remain at the original address, unless the explanation itself would perpetuate harm or breach a legal restriction.

Part Six: Standards for Specific Subjects and Formats

1. Transparency About Identity and Content Origin

The author or responsible unit, content type, publication date, and time of any significant update must be identified as appropriate to the format.

Republished content must be attributed to an identifiable original source and linked to that source where possible. Translations, adaptations, field reporting, and analysis must not be presented in ways that mislead readers about their origin or method of production.

For specialist content, relevant information about the author or expert must be available to readers.

2. Images, Video, and User-Generated Content

Featured images and multimedia content must not misrepresent the event, time, place, or people.

• Archival, illustrative, reconstructed, or composite images must be clearly identified.
• Cropping and technical image adjustments must not change the image’s journalistic meaning.
• Adding or removing material elements of a news image in a way that distorts reality is prohibited.
• Unrelated images must not imply that an event occurred when the text does not confirm it.
• Video titles and captions must remain faithful to the underlying content.

Before publishing user-submitted content, the newsroom checks its authenticity, time, location, context, usage rights, and potential for harm. The person submitting content is not necessarily its rights holder, and that person’s consent alone does not resolve all considerations concerning the people depicted.

3. Science, Health, and Data

Science and health reporting must rely on credible specialist sources. The type of study, important limitations, and preliminary nature of findings must be explained in accessible language.

Correlation must not be presented as causation. Findings from laboratory or animal studies must not be extended, without supporting evidence, into claims of a definitive treatment for humans.

Data reporting must clearly identify the source, time period, population studied, unit of measurement, and basis of comparison. Charts and the selection of figures must not distort the reader’s understanding.

4. Incidents, Crises, and Legal Proceedings

In crisis coverage, reducing harm and publishing verified, practical information take priority. Casualty figures, victims’ identities, and the cause of an incident must not be based on speculation or competitive pressure.

Publication of graphic images requires a clear journalistic need, editorial review, and an appropriate warning.

Reporting on legal proceedings must identify the stage of the proceedings and the source of information. Headlines must not turn a claim or allegation into a final judgment.

5. Advertising and Sponsored Content

Commercial content must be distinguishable from independent editorial content. Its label must be clear and appear at the beginning of the page. Its commercial nature must not be concealed in other presentations controlled by KhabarOnline.

Content type	Required identification
Advertorial	“Advertorial” or “Advertising Content”
Sponsored content	“Sponsored by …,” identifying the sponsor and explaining its role
Product coverage under a commercial arrangement	“Advertisement” or “Commercial Partnership”

An advertising label does not permit deceptive or unsupported claims. Advertisers have no right to dictate the publication, removal, or direction of independent editorial content.

6. Artificial Intelligence

AI may be used under human supervision for tasks such as interview transcription, translation assistance, preliminary summarisation, and data analysis.

In these uses:

• Quotations must be checked against the original audio, video, or text.
• Statistics, names, links, and suggested sources must be independently verified.
• Fabricating quotations, documents, sources, or statistics and presenting them as fact is prohibited.
• Confidential source information and personal data must not be entered into external tools without authorisation and an assessment of information safeguards.
• Synthetic images, audio, or video must not be presented as authentic records of an event.
• Substantive use of synthetic or machine-generated content must be disclosed whenever it affects the audience’s understanding of the content’s authenticity or method of production.

Purely assistive uses, such as spell-checking, do not require a separate public label. Final responsibility for the content remains with the newsroom in all cases.

7. Social Media

KhabarOnline’s official accounts are subject to the same principles of accuracy, attribution, fairness, and correction. A short format does not justify omitting a decisive condition or making a headline more misleading.

On personal accounts, newsroom members must also protect confidential sources and internal information, avoid insults and defamation, and distinguish between personal views and the outlet’s official position.

Part Seven: Headline-Writing Examples for Training

The examples below demonstrate KhabarOnline’s practical approach to correcting vague headlines and replacing them with accurate ones. Each proposed headline is valid only if the same information is supported by the source and the article.

Inappropriate headline	More accurate headline	Reason for correction
“New pensioner loan confirmed,” when only a proposal has been made	“Proposal to increase pensioner loans under review”	Preserves the actual status of the decision.
“Food vouchers for these people to be topped up”	“Food voucher balances for income deciles 1–3 to be topped up from 25 Mehr”	Identifies the eligible group and timing.
“What is the price of gold today?”	“18-carat gold today, 27 Mehr: 26 million tomans per gram”	Provides the answer instead of concealing it.
“Price of this car plunges”	“Peugeot 207 asking price down 5% from last week”	Identifies the car, type of price, and basis of comparison.
“This food cures cancer”	“Laboratory study examines the effect of a food compound on cancer cells”	Avoids turning preliminary findings into a treatment claim.
“Final decision on employee salaries / Read the details,” when no decision has been made	“Talks on employee salary increases continue; final amount not announced”	Removes a false promise and states the actual situation.

By contrast, a question such as “What is the difference between a home’s asking price and its sale price?” is acceptable for an evidence-based explanatory article, because it identifies the article’s genuine subject rather than concealing a specific news answer.

Part Eight: Oversight, Training, and Accountability

1. Oversight Programme

Compliance with this document is monitored at four levels:

• Daily controls: Pre-publication checks and the handling of urgent error reports by desk editors and the duty editor.
• Weekly review: Examination of a sample of desk output, high-risk content, and significant corrections by the Editorial Board or a group it designates.
• Monthly archive audit: Targeted review of older content based on audience reports, error patterns, and high-risk subjects.
• Six-monthly policy review: Assessment of the effectiveness of the guidelines, training needs, and revisions to this document.

The scope of sampling must cover all news desks, with priority given to high-traffic and high-risk desks.

2. Training and Handling Breaches

This document is provided to all relevant staff. Training takes place at the start of their work with KhabarOnline and following significant policy changes.

When a breach is identified, the first priority is to correct the content and reduce harm. The cause is then examined, including inadequate training, process failures, workload pressure, or disregard for the guidelines.

Appropriate action may include retraining, increased supervision, restrictions on publishing authority, or administrative action under internal regulations.

3. Evaluation Indicators

Area	Suggested monitoring indicator
Headline accuracy	Proportion of audited articles with a material inconsistency between the headline, body, and source
Error correction	Time between receipt of an error report, confirmation of the error, and publication of a correction
Transparency	Proportion of applicable articles clearly identifying the author or responsible unit, source, and date
Right of reply	Proportion of reports requiring a right of reply for which contact efforts are documented
Commercial content	Proportion of commercial articles with clear labels
Archive	Number of articles reviewed, significant errors, and recurring error patterns
Accountability	Proportion of error reports resolved and given an appropriate response

Monthly evaluations assess not only the number of corrections but also the reduction in recurring error patterns and the newsroom’s speed in correcting errors transparently.

4. Contacting the Newsroom

Readers, experts, and institutions may submit error reports, correction requests, or replies through the “Contact Us” section or the following addresses:

• corrections@khabaronline.ir — Error reports and correction requests
• info@khabaronline.ir — Other correspondence

Reports are referred to the relevant desk editor for initial review. Sensitive, disputed, or unresolved cases are referred to the editor-in-chief.

Reports involving an immediate risk, a privacy violation, or a significant error receive priority. The newsroom’s operational target is to conduct an initial review of error reports within 24 hours of receipt. Where an error is confirmed, the correction is made immediately after the initial review. If further inquiries or more time are required, the sender is informed of the status.

Appendix: Mandatory Pre-Publication Checklist

For each item, one of the following statuses must be recorded: “Approved,” “Requires Correction,” or “Not Applicable.” Any unresolved issue affecting accuracy, people’s rights, or the presentation of the news prevents publication.

No.	Check
1	Are the source and origin of the information clear, and has verification proportionate to the importance of the story been completed?
2	Are established facts, claims, analysis, and predictions clearly distinguished?
3	Are the headline, lead, and body consistent in meaning, scope, and degree of certainty?
4	Is the headline’s main claim explained at the beginning of the article and supported in the body?
5	Is any condition, affected group, or limitation whose omission would change the reader’s understanding made clear?
6	Does the headline avoid deliberately concealing information, unsupported sensationalism, and promises of content that is not provided?
7	Have numbers, units, dates, and the basis of comparison been checked?
8	In price reporting, are the type of price, market, source, and recording time identified?
9	In critical or allegation-based reporting, has a right of reply been sought and its status recorded?
10	Have the authenticity, context, usage rights, and caption or description of the image or video been checked?
11	Are the content type, its origin, and any material commercial relationship clear to the reader?
12	Has any use of AI been subject to human review and the required disclosure?
13	Are the page title, meta description, and social media presentation consistent with the article’s content?
14	Has high-risk content received a second review and approval from the responsible editor?
15	For corrections or republication, have the actual date and explanations of significant changes been provided?

KhabarOnline’s Final Commitment

KhabarOnline regards news publication as a public responsibility. Accuracy, professional independence, fairness, transparency, and accountability take precedence over sensationalism, haste, and short-term gain.

Publishing this document is not a claim to be free from error. It is a commitment to preventing errors, accepting responsibility, making visible corrections, and improving continuously. Readers have the right to assess KhabarOnline’s performance against these principles and to bring departures from them to the newsroom’s attention.

Significant changes to these policies must be announced on this page with the date and a summary of the changes.

Version History

Date	Description of change
25 Shahrivar 1405 / September 16, 2026	Internal communication to reporters and editors of the new requirements for headline writing, second reviews, and the recording of post-publication changes
27 Mehr 1405 / October 19, 2026	Public release of the complete Code of Professional Ethics and Editorial Policies

نسخه فارسی منشور اخلاق حرفه‌ای و سیاست‌های تحریریه خبرآنلاین (Persian Version)