Complaints process

Complaints

In a situation where you have a complaint, issue, wish to dispute the content of an article, or think we need to make a correction, this is the process you should follow.

Copy the URL of the article in question.

Contact us by email here or by phone here.
Send the URL and explain what your complaint is in regards to.

In cases of disputing content or pointing out inaccuracies, we may ask you to provide evidence to support your claim depending on the nature of the complaint.

We will review the claim and give you our decision within two hours (Monday-Friday 7am-11pm CET) or 24 hours Saturday-Sunday). For more urgent matters, you are advised to call us.
If we are in agreement that a mistake has been made or the Ethical Guidelines have been breached, we will update the article in question, making it clear that a mistake was made, what it was, and what the correction is. This will then be re-published and subscribers will be notified via push notification.

In cases where more time is needed to resolve the situation, the page can be taken down until a conclusion is reached. This will be decided on a case-by-case basis and you will be notified.

Cases where a retraction or written apology is requested, will be addressed on a case-by-case basis with the person making the complaint.

In cases where we do not agree, we will provide a full written response including evidence or a description of the evidence we have to support our stance. We will also give you the contact details of the Albanian Media Council who act as our ombudsman and will independently review the matter.
If at any stage, you are unhappy with how the complaint is being handled, you can contact the Albanian Media Council who will adjudicate the matter. Exit News deems their decision final and will act on it accordingly.

How we deal with complaints
It is rare that we receive complaints about the stories we publish, but when we do, we take the matter very seriously. This is the process we follow internally for dealing with complaints.

An editor is notified of the complaint. They will then review it in full, along with the article, and then make contact with the author of the piece.
The author will then be asked to justify the piece, detail and evidence related to the claim, and provide all sources. If it is found to be a mistake, the editor will make the corrections or other agreed action immediately and publish.
A training session will then be given to the author to alleviate the possibility of such an incident occurring again. If there is a disagreement over the claim, the editor will escalate it to the Co-Founder, or in some cases, the Albanian Media Council. In some circumstances we will take legal advice or engage another professional to assist.
In cases where it is deemed no mistake has been made, this will be communicated to the complainant along with the option of escalating the matter to the Albanian Media Council.
Exit News conducts regular meetings and training sessions with staff and any complaints will be discussed during these meetings.

Exit News is committed to resolving complaints in a timely, fair, and honest manner. We do not publish anything that we know to be intentionally false, misleading, or incorrect. In cases where we are in the wrong, we will make the necessary corrections and take steps to stop it from happening again. In cases where we are right, we remain loyal to the principles of freedom of expression and the right to a free and independent media.