Editorial Policy & Standards

Core Principles

• Accuracy first: Facts are verified with original documents, on-the-record interviews, or subject-matter experts before publication.
• Independence: Editorial decisions are made by the newsroom only. Sponsors, partners, and investors cannot preview, edit, or veto coverage.
• Accountability: We acknowledge mistakes publicly and correct the record in a timely and traceable manner.
• People-first reporting: Journalists clearly attribute information, avoid sensational framing, and provide the necessary context for complex topics.
• Diversity and inclusion: We seek a broad range of voices, avoid stereotypes, and report communities with fairness and respect.

Sourcing & Verification

Reporters must confirm information with at least two independent sources whenever possible. Anonymous sources are discouraged and only approved when the information is essential to the public interest and the newsroom can independently validate the claims. We link to primary documents, court filings, scientific studies, and datasets when they are available online.

Editorial vs. Sponsored Content

The newsroom does not produce advertorials. Sponsored modules, brand collaborations, and affiliate placements are labeled as "Sponsored" and separated visually from reporting. Sponsored links include appropriate rel attributes ("sponsored"/"nofollow") and never influence the ordering of news articles.

Conflict of Interest

Staff and contributors must disclose financial interests, consulting engagements, or personal relationships related to a story. Assignments are reassigned when a conflict cannot be resolved through disclosure alone. Travel hosted by third parties is declined unless explicitly approved by the Editorial Director with full transparency to readers.

Bylines and Who Is Responsible

The Tulum Times is a small independent newsroom. Reporting is published under the masthead byline, The Tulum Times, unless a named writer filed the piece, in which case it carries that person’s name and links to their profile page. We do not publish under invented staff names, and the masthead is not a stand-in for a newsroom larger than the one that exists.

Editorial responsibility for everything published here, whoever the byline names, rests with the publisher.

AI & Automation Disclosure

We use automated assistance in production, and we would rather say so plainly than leave it to be inferred. Translation into Spanish, image alt text, summaries, the weekly newsletter introduction and some article drafting are produced with the help of AI. Nothing reaches the site unreviewed: every piece is read and published by a person, and that person is accountable for it.

Photographs used to illustrate reporting are real photographs. The one place we publish AI-generated imagery is the recipe section, La Cocina Maya, where cooking a different Yucatecan dish each week for the camera is beyond what this newsroom can do. Every one of those images carries a note saying it was generated and may differ from the finished dish. Anywhere else an image is generated or materially enhanced, the article says so.

What we do not do: publish invented facts, invented sources, or invented people. Automation changes how the work is produced. It does not change who answers for it.

Security & Sensitive Coverage

Coverage that could affect ongoing investigations, emergency response, or vulnerable communities receives an additional review from a senior editor to ensure we do not publish personally identifiable information or operational details that could cause harm.

Contact the Editorial Desk

Questions about this policy or requests for clarifications can be sent to hello@tulumtimes.com with the subject line “Editorial Policy.”