Reuters

Reuters is an international news agency and the news business unit of Thomson Reuters. Its editorial independence rests on a governance arrangement that Thomson Reuters documents publicly.

The Trust Principles

The Reuters Trust Principles were created in 1941, during the Second World War, by agreement with the Newspaper Proprietors Association Limited and the Press Association Limited, then Reuters’ shareholders. Thomson Reuters publishes them in full:

That Reuters shall at no time pass into the hands of any one interest, group, or faction; That the integrity, independence, and freedom from bias of Thomson Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved; That Reuters shall supply unbiased and reliable news services to newspapers, news agencies, broadcasters, and other media subscribers and to businesses, governments, institutions, individuals, and others with whom Reuters has or may have contracts; That Thomson Reuters shall pay due regard to the many interests which it serves in addition to those of the media; and That no effort shall be spared to expand, develop, and adapt the news and other services and products of Thomson Reuters so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business.

Founders Share Company

When Reuters became a publicly traded company in 1984, a separate company — now the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company — was formed to hold a “Founders Share.” Thomson Reuters states that the arrangement gives that company enhanced voting rights where someone seeks a significant shareholding in or control of Thomson Reuters, and that its prior consent must be obtained before any sale of, or other material transaction involving, the Reuters news business unit. Thomson Reuters’ charter documents require its directors to have due regard to the Trust Principles in performing their duties.

Sourcing Note

The founded: 1851 value is removed: neither the Trust Principles page nor Thomson Reuters’ about page states a founding year, and reuters.com returns HTTP 401 to automated clients, so no first-party Reuters page could be read. The reach line “2,500 journalists worldwide serving 1,000+ news organizations” is removed for the same reason.

The covers connection to Elon Musk, described as Reuters having “won 2024 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting on Musk’s business practices,” is removed: the prize category and subject could not be confirmed from any source that could be fetched, and a prize citation is exactly the kind of specific claim that should not be carried unverified.

Also removed as unsourceable: the claims that Reuters’ alerts are “often… the first reports that reach other media outlets,” that its “initial framing of political events [is] particularly influential,” that its practice “helped establish industry standards,” and that the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism “produces influential research” — the Institute is at the University of Oxford and its relationship to the agency is not described on the pages cited here.