Editorial Ethics & Standards

At Open Source News, our primary commitment is to our readers and the broader engineering community. We believe that open-source infrastructure is critical to the modern world, and the entities governing it—whether non-profit foundations or corporate sponsors—must be subject to rigorous, impartial scrutiny. To maintain our integrity, we adhere strictly to the following editorial standards.

Conflicts of Interest

To maintain absolute objectivity, our editorial staff is strictly prohibited from holding financial investments, board seats, advisory roles, or active maintainerships in the projects, foundations, or tech conglomerates they cover. In the rare event that a minor conflict of interest is unavoidable due to an author's past technical contributions, it will be explicitly and prominently disclosed at the top of the relevant article.

Sourcing and Anonymity

We aggressively protect our sources. While we prioritize on-the-record statements, we understand that speaking out against major foundations or corporate governance often carries severe professional risks. We grant anonymity to whistleblowers when necessary to protect their livelihoods, but we will never publish unsubstantiated rumors, unverified chat logs, or data dumps without rigorous internal review and independent verification.

Corrections and Updates

Transparency is a core tenet of both open-source development and our newsroom. When we make a factual error, we commit to correcting it swiftly and visibly. All substantive corrections will be clearly logged at the bottom of the original article, detailing exactly what was changed and when the update occurred. We do not stealth-edit articles to hide mistakes.

Code of Conduct

While we frequently report on community disputes, governance friction, and security failings, we do not condone or participate in harassment. Our coverage of individuals is strictly limited to their professional actions, public statements, and code contributions within the ecosystem. We actively moderate our comment sections and social channels to ensure OSN does not become a vector for doxxing or personal attacks against volunteer developers.