Editorial Standards

The editorial line Scooped commits to publicly. This page exists so readers, sources, regulators, sponsors, and prospective subscribers know what Scooped is, what it isn’t, and how it operates. It is intentionally specific.

This page sits alongside the Methodology page, which describes the operational pipeline. This page describes the editorial commitments.

What Scooped is

Scooped is a regulatory intelligence publication. We monitor UAE government regulators, financial authorities, expert advisories, and primary news media. We summarise what changes, in plain language, with citations back to the originating source. We publish daily by email and on social channels, and we maintain a live web feed.

We are journalism. We work to journalism standards.

What Scooped is not

Not legal advice. Scooped summarises publicly available regulatory material. We do not tell readers what to do about their specific situation. For that, consult a UAE-qualified lawyer, accountant, or licensed advisor.
Not opinion. Our alerts report what regulators have published. We do not editorialise about the merits of regulations, the conduct of regulators, or the actions of officials.
Not an aggregator. We don’t republish other publications wholesale. We read primary sources directly where possible, and we paraphrase third-party reporting into our own short summaries with attribution.
Not a public-relations channel. We don’t publish press releases as-is. We don’t promote products, companies, or services in editorial content (sponsor placements are separate and clearly marked).

Source hierarchy

We work in three tiers, in this order of preference:

Primary sources — the regulator, ministry, or authority that issued the change. The Federal Tax Authority for tax. MOHRE for labour law. ICP for residency. The Central Bank for banking regulation. And so on. Where the regulator publishes directly, we read from them.
Expert firms — Big 4 advisories and selected UAE law firms with active regulatory practices. We use these for clarification and context when a primary source needs interpretation. We attribute and link.
News and trade media — major UAE dailies (Gulf News, Khaleej Times, The National), state news agencies (WAM), and reputable trade publications. We use these where regulators publish slowly or where news media surfaces a change before the regulator’s own announcement. We summarise briefly and link.

Sources we exclude: aggregators, derivative coverage that lifts from primary sources without adding value, and outlets whose entire content is press-release republication.

Citation policy

Every alert links to its originating source. Always. If we cannot link to a primary source, we identify which secondary source we relied on and why.

When we quote, we quote briefly and attribute clearly. When we paraphrase, we do so in our own words and link to the original.

We do not republish full third-party articles. We do not reproduce photographs, infographics, or branded content from regulators or news publishers without permission. Our work sits within fair-dealing principles under UAE Federal Law 38 of 2021.

If you are a source publisher and believe we have used your material outside fair-dealing bounds, write to hello@scooped.me with a specific reference. We will review and, if appropriate, edit or remove.

Plain-language translation

UAE regulators write for compliance officers. We rewrite for the residents and operators who have to act on the regulation.

We translate the intent — what changed, who is affected, by when — in 2-4 sentences. We do not introduce information that isn’t in the source. We do not omit material caveats. The original source URL is on every alert; when you want the legalese, it is one click away.

When a source is published in Arabic, we work from the Arabic original where reasonable, with English summary. We do not pretend that a translation is itself an official text.

Corrections policy

Despite verification, journalism sometimes errs. When we discover an error in a published alert, we:

Publish a correction with the same prominence as the original alert — on the live feed, in the daily digest, and on social if the alert was distributed there.
Annotate the original alert with the correction. We do not silently rewrite history.
Note material corrections in the daily digest for at least one cycle so subscribers see the update even if they missed it.

To report an error, write to hello@scooped.me with the alert in question and the correct information (preferably with a citation). We investigate within 24 hours and respond.

We maintain a public corrections log at uae.scooped.me/corrections listing every published correction since launch.

What we won’t cover

Some categories of content we deliberately do not publish, regardless of news value:

Opinion on individuals. We don’t editorialise about officials, executives, or named individuals. Where we report a regulator’s action, we describe the action — not our view of the person.
Speculation about regulatory motive. We report what regulators publish. We don’t speculate about why they made a decision unless they themselves explain.
Unverified rumours. If a regulatory change is rumoured but not confirmed by any reputable source, we wait. We would rather be 24 hours late than incorrect.
Content that could affect public safety. During emergencies (security incidents, ongoing investigations), we follow official authority guidance and publish only what authorities have authorised for public dissemination.

Sponsorship and editorial separation

Scooped is sponsor-supported and free to read. Sponsors fund continued operation; they do not direct content.

Sponsored content is always identified with a “Sponsored” label on web, in email, and on social.
Sponsors do not see subscriber lists, individual reader data, or unpublished editorial.
A sponsor’s presence does not influence whether or how we cover regulatory developments relating to that sponsor’s industry, competitors, or clients.
Sponsorship arrangements are documented in writing and reviewed annually.

If you ever believe a piece of editorial content has been influenced by a sponsor, write to hello@scooped.me. We take this seriously and will respond.

Removal and right-of-reply

If you believe an alert has materially misrepresented a regulatory matter that affects you or your organisation, you have two recourses:

Request a correction. Write to hello@scooped.me. If the alert is wrong, we will correct it per the corrections policy above.
Submit a right-of-reply. If the alert is factually accurate but you wish to add context, you may submit a short statement (under 200 words) that we will append to the alert with attribution.

We do not remove alerts that are accurate and on-topic. We do correct errors quickly and visibly.

Editorial integrity controls

A few specific commitments we will not negotiate on:

Every alert links to its source. No exceptions.
We publish corrections with the same prominence as the original. No quiet edits.
We disclose sponsors. No hidden placements.
We do not write opinion pieces masquerading as alerts.
We do not editorialise about officials, royals, or government bodies beyond reporting their public actions.

These are the lines that distinguish a publication from a content channel. We hold them.

Reporting an issue

For any of the following, write to hello@scooped.me:

Reporting an error
Submitting a right-of-reply
Raising a concern about sponsor influence
Requesting removal of source material we may have used outside fair dealing
Asking how an alert was sourced or classified

We respond within 24 hours during UAE business days and typically much faster.

Published by Bugbear Labs FZE Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone · License 4426652.01 Editorial enquiries: hello@scooped.me