Editorial Standards

These are the standards every article on UAE Current follows, whichever desk produces it and however it is drafted. They are enforced before publication by our editor and, for the parts a machine can check, by an automated quality gate that blocks an article that fails them.

Accuracy comes first

We would rather publish an hour later than publish something wrong. A fee, a fine, a deadline, an eligibility rule or a figure appears in an article only when we have read it on the responsible authority's own page or document, or when it is consistent across reliable reports and we say where it comes from. If we cannot support a point, we leave it out rather than guess. How we check is set out in our fact-checking policy.

Primary sources, named and linked

We cite the source that is actually responsible for a fact: the UAE Cabinet, a federal ministry, an emirate authority, a regulator, a court, the Official Gazette, or the company or organiser concerned. We link to it wherever a public page exists. We do not rewrite other publishers' reporting, and we do not name or link other news outlets as the basis for a story; we go to the original source instead.

Clear stages, dates and jurisdiction

A rule that has been announced is not the same as a rule that is in force. We say which stage a decision has reached: proposed, approved, issued, published in the Official Gazette, or in effect from a stated date. We use absolute dates, such as 1 January 2027, rather than "recently" or "next month", and times in UAE time (GST). We say whether a rule is federal or applies to one emirate or one free zone, because many do not apply everywhere.

Money and numbers

Amounts are given in UAE dirhams, written as AED, and we say whether VAT is included where that matters. A statistic carries its source, the period it measures and its definition. Where a calculation helps a reader, we show the working.

Independence and conflicts of interest

• Nobody outside the newsroom approves a story before publication.
• We do not accept money, gifts or favours in return for coverage, and we do not publish paid news.
• Advertising and sponsored content are labelled and kept apart from our reporting.
• Where the site or its editor has an interest in a subject, we disclose it on the article or step back from covering it. Our standing disclosures are on the ownership and funding page.

Fairness

When an article criticises a person or company, we report the facts that support the criticism and, where it is practical, give them the chance to respond. We describe public bodies factually and avoid mockery. We do not publish rumours, and we do not report allegations as facts.

Respect for UAE law and for privacy

We report within the laws of the United Arab Emirates. We do not publish personal information about private individuals without a strong public interest, we do not identify minors or victims of crime, and we take particular care with images of people. Feature images that are illustrations are made so that they cannot be mistaken for a photograph of a real event or a real person.

Headlines and images

A headline states what the article is about. We do not use clickbait, puzzles or questions designed to hide the answer. Feature images are either real photographs with their source credited, or clearly illustrative scenes that do not show identifiable people, documents or official emblems.

How articles are produced and signed

Articles appear under the byline of the desk that produced them, and each article names the editor who approved it. Desk reporting is researched and drafted with AI assistance; a human editor checks it and is accountable for it. We explain this fully in our AI and bylines policy. Every article shows when it was published and, after a substantive change, when it was updated. We do not change a date to make an old article look new.

Updates and corrections

News moves. When a story develops we update it and mark the update, or publish a new article and link the two. When we make a mistake we correct it openly, under our corrections policy. Readers can contact the editor at any time through the contact page.