Editorial Principles: How Voice of Lycia Works

Our editorial principles explain the rules behind every article, news story and image published on Voice of Lycia. Voice of Lycia is an independent digital archive that tells the history, nature and culture of the Lycia region in Turkish and English. Our aim is to bring the story of this land to our readers in a way that is accurate, clear and based on sources.

Accuracy and sources

• We base the information in our articles on scholarly publications, excavation reports, ancient sources and data from official institutions. We list our sources at the end of each page.
• We distinguish what is established from what is disputed or proposed. Where scholars disagree, we say so clearly.
• We do not publish information we cannot verify, and we never attribute words to anyone that they did not say.
• We avoid exaggerated and unverifiable claims such as “the only one in the world” or “the oldest”.

Language and naming

• We present Lycia as part of Anatolia, together with its Anatolian roots reaching back to the Bronze Age.
• We write the name of our country as “Türkiye” in every language.
• On first mention, we refer to the Byzantine Empire as “the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire”.
• We give the known Lycian names of ancient cities, separating established names from proposed ones.

News and opinion

• In our news stories we report events on the basis of their sources, in our own words. When we use information from another publication, we credit it and link to it.
• The “Voice of Lycia note” at the end of a news story is a context note linking the story to related content on our site. We keep our views and assessments separate from the news and label them clearly.

Photographs and images

• We use photographs we have taken ourselves or have permission to use, and we credit the photographer.
• Where no suitable photograph is available, we use illustrations. We label illustrations and maps showing approximate locations as “illustration” in the caption.
• We do not alter images in a way that could make them appear to be real photographs.

Protecting cultural heritage and nature

• We do not give the exact locations of endemic and protected species, such as orchids and Lycian salamanders.
• We do not publish information that could lead to illegal digging or damage to historical remains.
• We encourage responsible behaviour at archaeological sites and in nature. For details, see our Sustainable Travel and Ethics Guide.

Interviews

• In interviews, we report what people say while preserving the meaning of their words.
• We submit interview texts to the interviewee for approval before publication.

Independence and sponsorship

• Our sponsors and partners do not determine our content. Our editors decide which subjects we cover and how.
• We clearly label sponsored content and content produced in partnership so that readers can see it.

Use of artificial intelligence

We use AI-assisted tools at stages such as research, translation and drafting. Every published text is read by our editors, checked against sources and corrected. We take responsibility for everything we publish.

Corrections policy

We can make mistakes. If you notice incorrect or missing information in one of our articles, please let us know through our Contact page. We review every report and, if we confirm the error, correct it as soon as possible. Significant corrections are noted at the end of the article with their date.

Reader contributions

If you have news, a photograph or an article from the region, you can send it to us through our Contact page. We assess submissions according to these principles, verify them and, where necessary, edit them before publication. With their permission, we credit contributors by name. Photographs you send must be your own or you must have permission to use them.

Contact

For questions and suggestions about our editorial principles, please reach us through our Contact page.