Editorial policy
Scope
An incident, for The War On News, is an action by a government actor, or by a person acting with government authority, that limits journalists' access, credentials, funding, legal standing or physical ability to report. Government actors include heads of government and their offices, agencies, legislatures, courts, prosecutors, police and regulators, at any level. The rules are the same for every party and every administration.
We exclude the following unless a government actor directed, required or carried out the action:
- Moderation decisions by private platforms
- Purely commercial disputes, such as carriage fees, ownership changes and layoffs
- Misconduct by individual reporters
Arrests of individual journalists, and the use of force against them, are recorded in detail by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. We link to its records, and we write our own entry when a policy, an order or an official decision is behind them.
Inclusion threshold
An incident enters the record when two independent sources report it or when one primary document establishes it. Independent means separately reported: two outlets carrying the same wire story count as one source. An affected outlet's report on itself counts as one source and is attributed as that outlet's account.
Neutrality
Every entry states the action and the justification the actor gave for it, both quoted verbatim where they exist. If no justification has been given, the entry says so and gives the date. We do not infer motive or describe an actor's state of mind, and characterizing words appear only inside quotation marks. We name the office and the person who held it at the time of the action.
Allegations and pending litigation
Allegations are attributed to whoever makes them: "the complaint alleges", "the indictment charges", "the White House said". A lawsuit is identified by court, case name, docket number and filing date, and it is described as pending until a court rules. Preliminary rulings are called preliminary, appeals are noted, and a court's findings are quoted from the opinion or order.
Privacy
We record professional facts about journalists: name, outlet, role and what happened to them in the course of their work. We do not publish home addresses, family details, health information or personal accounts. Officials are recorded for their official conduct. People who are neither officials nor journalists are not named unless a primary document names them and the entry cannot be understood without the name. Requests to remove a personal detail go to corrections@thewaronnews.com.
Global coverage
The site is US-first. Cases from other countries appear as context and comparison, each described on its own legal terms: the constitution, statute, regulator and courts of that jurisdiction, named as they are named there. We do not measure other countries against the First Amendment, rank countries ourselves or suggest that actions under different legal systems are equivalent. Rankings published by others, such as the RSF World Press Freedom Index, are attributed with their year.
Updates and supersession
Entries are updated as matters change, and each change is dated. Facts are superseded rather than overwritten, and the earlier versions stay visible in each entry's history. An entry is never deleted. If one proves out of scope or wrong, it is withdrawn with a note at the same address explaining why.
Illustrations
Illustrations are made with image-generation tools under the editor's direction. They show objects and places: credentials, gates, microphones, court papers. They never show the likeness of a real person, an outlet's logo or an official seal, and they are not evidence of the events they accompany.