Photo and image policy

Photos are an important part of how we tell stories. This page explains where our images come from and how we credit them.

News photos are real

Every news photo we publish is a real photograph. We never use AI-generated images of any kind, and we never edit a news photo in a way that changes what it shows. Normal adjustments such as cropping, brightness and colour correction are fine, as long as the photo still gives a true picture of what happened. Some images, such as Folketinget’s official portraits, may not be altered at all, so we use them uncropped.

For more information, read our AI ethics.

Where our photos come from

Most of our photos come from free, openly licensed sources:

• Wikimedia Commons and Flickr images under Creative Commons licences (CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0)
• free photo libraries such as Pexels
• official portraits and photos from the Danish Parliament (Folketinget), used under its terms
• public-domain images, such as those from US government agencies
• occasionally press images supplied by companies or organisations, used only on their terms

We do not use images whose licence forbids commercial use (NC).

How we credit photos

Every photo has a credit that names the photographer and the source, for example:

• (Photo: Giorgio Galeotti/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
• (Photo: Christian Ursilva)
• (Photo: Ann H/Pexels)
• (Photo: Marie Hald/Folketinget)

The credit sits at the end of the caption, in plain text, in the form (Photo: Photographer/Source, licence). It names the licence where there is one, never includes a link, and adds ‘cropped’ or ‘modified’ when we have changed a Creative Commons image.

Some photographers ask to be credited differently. Christian Ursilva, for example, is credited “Photo: Christian Ursilva”, without the source or licence, and in captions within the article his name links to his Flickr page.

Captions

Captions say who or what is in the picture, and where and when it was taken where we know it. Captions do not contain links. If a photo shows an earlier, specific event rather than the one we are reporting, the caption says so, for example ‘archive photo’. General photos of buildings and places are not marked.

Illustrations and graphics

Graphics, maps and charts are marked with their source. We never use AI-generated images, including illustrations.

People in photos

We think about privacy when we choose photos, especially photos of children, people in vulnerable situations, and people who are suspected or accused of crimes. We do not show identifiable private persons, suspects or applicants in cases where their identity is not the story. That follows the Danish guidelines for sound press ethics.

Is that your photo?

If you think we have used your photo without permission, or credited it wrongly, email jonas.laursen@danishdispatch.dk. We will look into it and fix the credit or remove the photo.