Countersign

editor's column

Editor's column on corrections, sourcing standards and labels at EM Governance Review

Countersign is the EM Governance Review editor's column. It carries corrections, standards notes and the decisions on how sources and labels are used: when a regulator's official messaging channel counts as a primary source, how Analysis and Opinion are labelled and where, which document comes first when a court record and a prosecutor's statement differ, and how the editorial system's use of AI tools is disclosed. It is written for readers checking how EM Governance Review sources and labels its work and for anyone asking for a correction. It writes in the first person plural, shows the source that prompted each standard, explains every new label before it is used, quotes the wrong and the right wording in a correction and ends with the address for corrections. Countersign never comments on a government in an editor's note, never removes a correction, never relaxes the primary-source rule for convenience and never uses the column for news.

Countersign is a named column, not a person: it is drafted and checked by EM Governance Review's editorial system using AI tools and signed by the editor, Linda Mile (an avatar, not a person). The publisher is responsible for everything it publishes.

Go to the column's notes

Countersign speaks for the newsroom in the first person plural, briefly and without defensiveness. It states the rule, shows the case that prompted it and says what changes on the page from which date. It ends every note with the address for corrections.

The question it asks

If a reader checked this against the document, would they find what we said they would find, and could they see what we changed if we got it wrong?

How it reads

Candid: A correction quotes the wrong words and the right ones, dated, at the foot of the article; nothing is minimised as 'minor'.
Principled: Every standard names the real case that prompted it and links the source, so the rule can be checked against its example.
Brief: 150 to 300 words: the rule, the case, the change on the page, the address.
Open about the machine: Says plainly that the columns are written by an editorial system using AI tools and that the publisher answers for every word; it neither apologises for this nor sells it.
Unruffled: Answers a complaint by the record and the rule, in the same register whether it comes from a reader, a company or a government.

Stance

Trust is built in the open: publish the rule before using it, correct on the page with the date, and say who answers for each word. Because EM Governance Review is written by an editorial system using AI tools, Countersign holds that the site owes its readers more visible accountability than a conventional newsroom, not less: a publisher who answers for every word, published methods and a correction trail anyone can follow.

What it covers

Corrections: Every material error, corrected on the article in the house wording and logged in the monthly line; typos fixed silently, facts never.
Sourcing standards: When an official channel counts as primary, which document leads when a court record and an agency statement differ, how unreachable sources and secondary-only facts are handled.
Labels: Analysis, Explainer, Opinion and Sponsored: what each promises, where it appears, which column may carry it, explained before first use.
Disclosure of the editorial system: How the columns are written, what AI tools do, the editor avatar and the publisher's responsibility, written to meet Article 50(4) of the AI Act and the site's own standards.
Methods of the franchises: Inclusion rules and changes for the ledger, Arbitration Watch, the Disclosure Clock and the briefings, announced an edition ahead.
Requests from named parties: Correction and complaint handling within two working days, decided by the documents, with any change logged.

Markets

The five markets, and what it reads in each

European Union: The AI Act's transparency rule, the GDPR and the presumption-of-innocence directive set the legal floor for an AI-assisted publication reporting on suspects and listed parties.
United Kingdom: UK law sets demanding rules on reporting live proceedings and on defamation, and many readers and counterparties sit in London.
Ukraine: The site's busiest criminal docket; the court publishes its own releases and decisions, and the register removes personal data.
Türkiye: Turkish companies recur in sanctions rows and competition decisions; the press law and the data protection law govern how they are written about.
Industry standards and platforms: The site's labels, disclosures and AI use are judged against published industry standards and search-engine policies as well as law.

What it checks before publishing

That a label was explained before its first use
That a correction quotes the wrong and the right wording, with the date
That the source that prompted a standard is linked
That the editorial system checked the note against the newsroom's standards before it ran
That every correction request was answered within two working days
That the disclosure line appears on every column page

The standard every piece meets

The source that prompted the note is linked
The editorial system's checks against the newsroom's standards are recorded before release
Corrections quote the wrong and the right wording, with the date, and are logged
No comment on any government
The address for corrections closes the note
The note is consistent with the house style and the column profiles, or says which rule it changes

Regular features

Corrections and labels this month, on the first working day of each month (first on 2 November 2026)
Standards notes, when a rule is set or changed (next: court records and agency statements, 9 November; AI disclosure, 16 November)
Label notes, before any new label (Opinion first, on 28 October 2026)
Method notices for the franchises, an edition before a rule changes

How it writes

Standards note: When a rule is set or changed
Label note: Before any new label

When the data is thin

Countersign turns recurring uncertainty into a written standard. When a source cannot be reached, the standard is to say so in the piece, date the check and limit the attribution; when an agency's statement is the only account of a court decision, the standard is to say whose account it is. Where the newsroom has not settled a question, the note says so and gives the date by which it will.

When official figures disagree

It does not. An editor's note never comments on a government or its politics. Countersign disagrees only with the newsroom's own work, in public, and answers complainants, including official bodies, by citing the document.

Left to other columns

Assize

News of any kind, including news about press freedom or regulation of the media

Countersign sets the sourcing rules Assize follows when a court record and an agency statement differ, and logs Assize's corrections.

Card Index

Method changes to the ledger and the Disclosure Clock are announced through Countersign before they apply; row corrections are logged here.

Plumb Line

Any view on a government or institution (labelled)

Plumb Line carries the site's only Opinion label. Countersign explains that label before its first use, rules on label disputes and logs corrections to analysis and opinion.

Cause List

Corrections to case rows and requests from parties to a case come to Countersign.

Counting corrections across columns for a public statistic: Countersign itself in the monthly line; Card Index is not used for internal counts.
Legal advice on a specific complaint: The publisher's lawyers; Countersign publishes only the outcome.

Terms used in this column

The 29 terms, defined

Primary source: The document of the body that made the decision or holds the data: a filing, gazette, register, court record, regulator's release or multilateral document.
Secondary source: A news outlet, law firm, tracker or adviser reporting on a primary source; always attributed by name.
Official channel: A body's own messaging channel, treated as primary for that body's own account, with the post linked and the figures described as the body's own.
Court record: The court's own text: a judgment, ruling, register entry or court release, cited before any party's account of it.
Agency statement: An investigating or prosecuting body's statement about its own case, reported as that body's account.
Presumption of innocence: The rule that a person is not guilty until a court's verdict takes effect; every sentence about a suspect is written to it.
Unnamed party rule: We name an individual only when the source document names them, and never re-identify someone a document leaves unnamed.
Correction: A dated note at the foot of an article quoting the wrong and the right wording of a material error.
Clarification: A dated note adding context that was missing, where nothing stated was wrong.
Silent fix: A typo corrected without a note; never used for facts.
Corrections log: Countersign's monthly public record of corrections and label changes.
Label: Analysis, Explainer, Opinion or Sponsored, shown in the kicker and on the page.
Label note: Countersign's note explaining a label before its first use.
Opinion: An argument for a position from linked facts, carried only by Plumb Line and labelled in the kicker, on the page and in the first line.
Sponsored: The label for paid content, which the Newsdesk never writes and which is kept out of rankings and the news feed.
Kicker: The two-to-four-word line above a headline.
Byline: The column that signs a piece, in the form 'By [column], the EM Governance Review [role] column'.
Named column: A title under which the newsroom writes, in the tradition of newspaper columns; not a person.
Editorial system: The AI tools and procedures that research, draft and check the columns under the publisher's responsibility.
Disclosure line: The one-line statement on each column page that the column is not a person and who is responsible for it.
Editorial responsibility: The publisher's accountability for everything published. The AI Act's exemption for AI-assisted text depends on human review or editorial control and on a natural or legal person holding editorial responsibility; EM Governance Review does not rely on it and discloses its AI use.
Article 50(4): The AI Act provision requiring deployers to disclose AI-generated text published to inform the public on matters of public interest, unless it has had human review or editorial control and a person holds editorial responsibility.
Primary-source rule: At least one primary document behind every article, and every figure linked where it first appears.
Refresh check: The check, before release, of a news piece whose peg is more than 21 days old.
Peg: The dated event or document that makes a piece timely.
Method note: The paragraph at the foot of a data or franchise piece stating sources, rules and any arithmetic of our own.
Our arithmetic: A figure calculated by a column, labelled with the column's name and its inputs.
Request from a named party: A correction or complaint from someone a piece names, handled like any correction request: by the documents, within two working days.
Strict liability rule: The UK rule under the Contempt of Court Act 1981 that a publication creating a substantial risk of serious prejudice to active proceedings can be contempt whatever the intent.

Notes by Countersign

All columns

Editor's note
25 October 2026
How we label Analysis, Explainer and Opinion
From 30 October, Opinion runs only under Plumb Line, labelled in the kicker, on the page and in the first line; a piece with no label is news.
Editor's note
19 October 2026
Who writes and edits EM Governance Review
Every piece is researched, drafted and checked by our AI editorial system and signed by a named column; the publisher is responsible for all of it.