La Caribeña News — Journalistic Standards and Practices

STAGING NOTE. This is the staging draft of the public-facing LCN JSP. The live version publishes at lacaribenanews.com/journalistic-standards/. This document is reader-facing; it commits LCN to specific principles and behaviors without describing how the newsroom's editorial process operates internally. The 25 internal operational Standards are documented separately at wiki/EDEN_for_Newsroom_Standards.md and remain confidential.

GHOST PAGE LIVE. This staging draft is now published at https://lacaribenanews.com/journalistic-standards/ as of 2026-05-28T06:23:17.000Z. Page ID 6a17d76f7d5e860001dae32f. Status published. Admin edit URL: https://la-caribena-news.ghost.io/ghost/#/editor/page/6a17d76f7d5e860001dae32f. Theo (editor of record per Standard 22) gave explicit overnight approval to publish. This staging draft remains the source of truth for any future edits; changes to the live page should be made here first and re-pushed. Per D-191.

Why we publish this

You're holding our newsroom accountable when you read La Caribeña News. We think you should be able to see, in plain language, what we commit to. This document is that commitment. It is not a description of how we work. It is a record of what we promise to do, and what you can hold us to if we fall short.

We update this document when our practice changes. The last update is dated at the bottom of the page.

What La Caribeña News is

La Caribeña News is an independent Caribbean business publication. We cover the region's banking, regulation, energy, tourism, MSME, and trade beats from a Caribbean point of view. Our work is read by professionals, regulators, journalists, and institutional partners across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the diaspora.

We are not a re-aggregator of Western coverage of the Caribbean. We report on the region as the region understands itself. Our perspective is one of our few real assets, and we protect it.

Our five principles

Everything we publish is measured against these five principles. When we get something wrong, the failure usually traces to one of them.

Accuracy

We verify before we publish. Facts in our reporting trace to a named source we can show you. Direct quotations match the words our subjects actually said. When we get something wrong, we say so, we correct it visibly, and we treat the correction with the same prominence as the original error.

Accuracy is not a posture. It is a working discipline. We slow down when we are not sure. We do not present uncertainty as fact. We do not present rumor as reporting. Five sources that all rest on the same original source are still only one source.

Sourcing

We identify our sources to you wherever we safely can. When we cannot, we explain why and we take responsibility for the source's reliability.

We treat primary documents (regulatory filings, court records, government circulars, company disclosures) as the foundation of any claim that rests on them. We link to those documents where they are publicly available so you can verify what we cite.

We do not use confidential sources lightly. When we do, our editor of record reviews the use, the protection, and the responsibility we take on the source's behalf.

Accountability

Every article we publish carries a named editor of record. The editor of record is accountable for the decision to publish.

You can reach the editor. If you believe we have published something inaccurate, unfair, or unsupported, we want to hear from you. The contact route is at the bottom of this page. We commit to a substantive response within five working days.

We do not hide behind the institution. The person who decided to publish is named on every article.

Independence

Our editorial decisions are not influenced by advertisers, sponsors, donors, partners, or any other commercial relationship. The masthead and the commercial side of the business operate on different tracks. No one outside the editorial chain has the authority to spike a story, soften a finding, or shape coverage of any subject.

Independence is also not neutrality. We do not pretend that every claim has two equally valid sides. We follow the evidence. When we take an editorial position, we say so. When we report, we report.

Caribbean Centering

Our work begins from the assumption that the Caribbean is the protagonist of its own story. We cover regional regulators on their own terms. We name Caribbean institutions correctly. We treat Caribbean readers as the primary audience, not as a secondary market for Western frames.

This does not mean we ignore international context. It means we lead with the Caribbean view and explain the international context where it is relevant, not the other way around. When global news has Caribbean implications, our framing prioritizes the local consequence.

How we correct mistakes

When we publish something inaccurate, we correct it. The correction goes on the article itself, dated, with a brief note explaining what changed and why. If the original article appeared on our social channels, we issue the correction there too with the same prominence as the original post.

We commit to:

• Same-day correction for factual errors brought to our attention through our complaint route.
• A note on the article explaining what was corrected.
• A standing corrections archive readers can browse.

The corrections archive is at lacaribenanews.com/corrections/.

Right of response

If you are the subject of a critical article we are preparing, you will be given a fair opportunity to respond before publication. We will share what we plan to report, the substantive claims, and the source basis for them. We will give you a reasonable window to reply, calibrated to the urgency of the story.

If you decline to respond, we will say so in the article. If you respond after publication and your response materially changes the record, we will update the article and credit the correction.

Subjects of our reporting can reach us at the contact route at the bottom of this page.

Conflicts of interest

Our editorial staff and contributors do not work for political candidates or office-holders on a paid or voluntary basis while covering Caribbean politics or regulation. Public stands on contested social, religious, or political issues are discussed with the editor of record before publication.

When a contributor has a personal, family, or financial relationship with the subject of a story, that relationship is disclosed to the editor of record, and either the contributor is reassigned or the relationship is disclosed in the article itself. We do not let undisclosed ties shape what readers see.

When our reporting includes a partner, sponsor, donor, or grant funder of La Caribeña News, that relationship is disclosed in the article.

Privacy and reporting on minors

We do not photograph or interview people under 18 on subjects involving their personal welfare without the consent of a parent, guardian, or other responsible adult, except where the public interest clearly justifies it and the editor of record has approved.

Children involved in criminal cases — as victims, witnesses, or accused — are not identified. The protection extends to information that could indirectly identify them.

Adult private life is reported on only where there is a clear public interest. We do not use long-lens photography on private property. We do not publish home addresses, family routines, or other details that could expose individuals to risk.

Sourcing and verification

Every factual claim in a published article rests on at least one identified source. When the source is a document, we link to it. When the source is a person, we name them where we safely can. When the source has asked for anonymity and the public interest justifies the protection, our editor of record approves the use and we explain to readers the reason for anonymity.

Photographs and video carry credit lines. Where we cannot identify the original source of an image, we do not use it.

We do not knowingly republish another outlet's work without licensing or attribution. We do not present aggregated coverage as original reporting.

How we use technology

We use modern tools, including AI, in routine parts of our editorial workflow. Transcription, research assistance, draft preparation, and formatting are areas where these tools improve our speed and accuracy.

These tools are part of a rigorous international best practices editorial review from our global team. They are not a substitute for the editorial judgment that decides what we publish. Every article we publish carries the same commitment to the five principles above, regardless of which tools shaped the draft.

Where AI plays a significant or non-routine role in a particular article — for example, in generating analysis that becomes a substantive part of what we publish — we say so. The article will carry a clear note about the role the tools played and what our editorial review verified.

For routine tools embedded in our workflow, we do not disclose use per article. This matches the practice of every modern newsroom: we don't disclose every spell-checker run, every CMS template, or every transcription service. We disclose what is meaningful for you to know.

The principle is straightforward. The tools change. The standards do not.

What we will not do

Some commitments are clearer as prohibitions.

• We will not present AI-generated images of real living people as documentary photographs. We will not deepfake. We will not blur the line between a real person's likeness and a synthetic one.
• We will not present another outlet's reporting as our own.
• We will not publish anonymous claims against named individuals without independent corroboration.
• We will not run advertorial content disguised as editorial coverage. Sponsored content is labeled as such.
• We will not retract a story to please a subject. Retractions are reserved for material errors of fact, never for inconvenience to those reported on.
• We will not soften coverage in exchange for access. We have walked away from access before. We will again.

Contact us

For corrections, complaints, right-of-response requests, or any concern about a piece we have published:

• Email: [email protected]
• Mail: 64 Hadfield St, Stabroek, Georgetown, Guyana
• Web: lacaribenanews.com/contact/

We aim to respond substantively within five working days. The editor of record reviews every complaint personally.

Editor of record

The editor of record is Theon Alleyne, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, La Caribeña News.

Theo holds the CRCP (FINRA Institute at Wharton) and CCEP (SCCE) compliance credentials, a BSc in Criminal Justice (Rutgers), and is completing an MPA. His full bio is available at lacaribenanews.com/about/.

He is reachable at the contact route above. He reviews every reader complaint personally and signs off on every published article.

What this document does not do

This document does not describe how our editorial process works internally. The newsroom's review steps, tooling, models, and decision flows are operational and we keep them so. What you can hold us to is what is on this page.

This document does not replace the law. Defamation, contempt, privacy, and child-protection laws apply to our work regardless of what we promise here. Where law and policy speak to the same issue, the stricter standard governs.

This document does not promise we will never get something wrong. It promises that when we do, we will correct it visibly, explain ourselves, and learn.

Last updated: 2026-05-27. Next scheduled review: 2027-05-27. Document version: 1.0.

Substantive updates between scheduled reviews are noted in the version history at the bottom of lacaribenanews.com/journalistic-standards/.

Version history

• 1.0 | 2026-05-27 | Initial publication. La Caribeña News Journalistic Standards and Practices established.