Every Capital Business Media title — Business Matters, Travelling For Business, EV Powered, Electric Home, Property Portfolio Investor, Not Ltd, Optimum, Fund Manager Today and the awards programme — works to a single editorial code. This page sets out the standards our journalists, editors and contributors follow and how to raise a complaint if you believe we have fallen short.
CBM publishes specialist journalism for working audiences — founders, fund managers, fleet buyers, frequent travellers, portfolio landlords and corporate-travel managers. Those readers act on what we publish, so accuracy, independence and fairness are commercial as well as ethical imperatives.
We follow the spirit of the Editors’ Code of Practice overseen by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), even where individual titles are not directly regulated. Our journalists, freelance contributors and contracted writers are all required to work to this code.
We take all reasonable care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information. In practice that means:
We prefer named, on-the-record sources. Anonymous sources are used only where the information is genuinely in the public interest and cannot be obtained on the record, where the source has a credible reason to expect harm if named, and where the byline editor is satisfied with the source’s reliability.
Information from a single source — particularly an anonymous one — is corroborated before we publish a claim that affects a named individual or organisation.
Press releases are clearly labelled as such where the body of a piece is substantially drawn from one. Wire-service copy is credited.
News and analysis are clearly distinguished from opinion and comment. Opinion pieces — including columns, leaders, guest columns and platform-led commentary — are clearly signposted as such, attributed to a named author, and not confused with news reporting in the same edition.
Any content that has been paid for, sponsored or produced in commercial partnership is labelled clearly and prominently. This includes:
Sponsored content is held to the same standards of accuracy and fairness as editorial. We do not publish sponsored content that misleads readers about its commercial nature.
Writers and editors must disclose any financial interest, family relationship, professional history or other connection that might reasonably be perceived to compromise their independence on a story. Disclosure may take the form of a recusal, a transparent note within the piece, or an editorial-board decision to assign the story to another writer. Specific arrangements for our financial-markets coverage are set out in our Conflicts of Interest Policy.
We respect individuals’ reasonable expectations of privacy, particularly outside their professional roles. Where we publish allegations or significant criticism of an identifiable individual or organisation, we offer them the opportunity to respond before publication and we reflect their response fairly in the published piece. The right to reply is offered in good time and never as a courtesy notice immediately before going to press.
We do not interview, photograph or name children under 16 about their own welfare in the absence of consent from a parent, carer or another adult with responsibility for them, and only where the child’s welfare is not put at risk by publication. We take particular care when interviewing people who are bereaved, in shock, recovering from illness, or otherwise vulnerable.
If we get something wrong, we correct it. Corrections are made promptly, clearly and with due prominence. For digital articles, corrections are applied in-line and the article is marked as updated with a brief explanation of what changed and when. Significant errors are flagged at the top of the piece. For print, corrections appear in the next available edition.
To request a correction, email corrections@cbmeg.co.uk. Please include the article URL or print citation, the specific point in dispute and any evidence supporting the correction.
If you believe a CBM title has breached this code, please make a written complaint within 30 days of publication to complaints@cbmeg.co.uk. We will:
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may escalate to IPSO at ipso.co.uk for those CBM titles within the IPSO scheme. The escalation pathway for each title is given on its respective contact page.
