We’re accountable for every single word we publish

Unlike social media and the major digital platforms, this newspaper and its website are accountable for every single word we publish.

We have signed up to a comprehensive Editors’ Code of Practice – which even our detractors have imitated – and we and all our staff have contractually bound themselves to its requirements.

This code encompasses everything from accuracy to privacy, harassment, intrusion into grief or shock, protecting children, reporting crime, and the use of clandestine devices and subterfuge.

It is explicit in the sensitivity we show in reporting suicides and protecting the most vulnerable in society, not least the victims of sexual assault.

As a result, virtually all of the content that we generate ourselves is produced by reporters trained by the National Council for the Training of Journalists to the highest industry benchmarks.

These reporters are qualified in a range of skills – from newspaper law and ethics to shorthand, to ensure we get every quote right.

Every word they write is checked in local newspaper offices by qualified senior experts and if we do make a genuine mistake, you can contact us immediately – we are real people, locally based, living in our shared communities. We’re not some digital algorithm.

We are passionate and exquisitely professional about the way in which we hold decision makers to account, represent our home towns, and provide news and information that is suitable for whole families.

We are honest brokers of local information, upholding the values that you share with us, seeking always to do the right thing no matter how difficult that can sometimes be in fast changing times.

That all costs money. When you buy our paper or advertise with us you are supporting the very journalism and quality that keeps integrity at the heart of all we do.

We make a real difference.