The standard
Oxuz is an aggregator, not a wire service. We surface headlines and short extracts from established broadcasters and news agencies, each shown with attribution and a link back to the originating publisher. We do not reproduce full articles, and we do not strip a publisher's identity or advertising from its work.
Two tests govern whether a source enters the aggregator. A source must be institutionally recognized — a member of one of the world's regional broadcasting unions, or a wire agency of record — and it must be lawfully and independently accessible, meaning Oxuz can retrieve its public feed on its own initiative without any relationship to the source. A source that fails either test is not included, whatever its prominence.
How sources qualify
The recognition test is anchored to membership in the regional broadcasting unions that together constitute the World Broadcasting Unions. Union membership gives Oxuz a neutral, externally defined, and verifiable basis for what counts as an established broadcaster — rather than an editor's discretion.
- EBU — European Broadcasting Union, with its associate members abroad.
- ABU — Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.
- NABA — North American Broadcasters Association.
- ASBU — Arab States Broadcasting Union.
- AIR–IAB — International Association of Broadcasting (Ibero-America).
- African Union of Broadcasting and the Caribbean Broadcasting Union.
Selected international wire agencies of record are included on the same footing. Oxuz retrieves each source's own publicly published feed on its own initiative; inclusion is an editorial decision made by Oxuz alone, against the criteria on this page.
Statement of independence
Oxuz has no affiliation with, ownership by, funding from, or editorial direction from any source, government, or foreign principal. No source pays for inclusion, ranking, or placement, and no source is included at the request, direction, or on behalf of any party. We accept no content supplied or commissioned by a source; we aggregate only what a source has already published to the public.
Exclusion screens
Two screens are applied to every candidate source before any editorial judgment, and any source that fails the first screen is excluded outright.
Sanctions screen
Any broadcaster — together with its parent and its affiliates — appearing on the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List, or on the European Union consolidated sanctions list, is excluded. This is automatic and is not subject to editorial override.
Independence & press-freedom screen
State-controlled broadcasters in jurisdictions rated Not Free by Freedom House, or in the lowest tier of the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, are flagged. Where such a source is carried at all, it is clearly labeled by ownership and control, and its inclusion is limited and disclosed.
Sanctions & legal basis
U.S. economic sanctions generally prohibit transactions with certain countries and their governments. They have always contained a deliberate carve-out for news and information — a recognition that restricting the cross-border flow of reporting would collide with the free flow of ideas. That carve-out is the basis on which Oxuz may lawfully draw reporting from a sanctioned jurisdiction.
The informational-materials exemption
Enacted as the Berman Amendment (1988) and broadened by the Free Trade in Ideas Act of 1994, the exemption is codified in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act at 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b)(3). It denies the President — and therefore OFAC — the authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, the importation from any country or exportation to any country of information or informational materials, expressly including news wire feeds, "regardless of format or medium of transmission." Courts have read the exemption to have broad scope, and Congress provided no mechanism to waive it.
Because the exemption sits in the IEEPA statute itself, it applies across IEEPA-based sanctions programs, and it is restated in the regulations of individual programs — for example Iran (Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. § 560.210(c); definition at § 560.315) and Cuba (Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. § 515.206; definition at § 515.332). OFAC's guidance treats dissemination of already-published informational materials — including copying and translating — as within the exemption. That is the basis on which Oxuz renders foreign-language headlines into English.
The limits Oxuz observes
The exemption covers material that is already created and in existence. It does not cover commissioning a source's content, or substantively altering it, and it authorizes no transaction or relationship with a sanctioned party. Accordingly Oxuz (a) reproduces and links only already-published items; (b) maintains no payment, advertising, service, or contractual relationship with any source in a sanctioned jurisdiction; and (c) excludes outright any outlet that is itself an SDN-listed blocked person, even where the underlying reporting would be exempt. Recognition by a broadcasting union does not lift sanctions, and is never treated as if it did.
Worked example: Iranian state media
Iran illustrates how the screens and the exemption operate together. Iran's national broadcaster, IRIB, is an active member of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union — institutionally recognized — yet it and several Iranian agencies are OFAC-designated blocked persons. Recognition and sanctions point in opposite directions, and the sanctions screen controls.
| Outlet | Ownership / control | Recognition | Disposition |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRIBincl. Press TV, IRINN, Al-Alam | State (Office of the Supreme Leader) | ABU full member | Excluded · SDN |
| Fars · TasnimIRGC-affiliated agencies | Semi-official, IRGC-linked | — | Excluded · SDN |
| IRNA · ISNAstate wire · students' agency | Government / semi-official | Not blocked | Eligible · labeled |
| BBC News Persian · DW Persian | Public-service (BBC · Deutsche Welle) | EBU | Verified |
Primary coverage of Iran is therefore drawn from sanctions-clear union members reporting on the country — chiefly BBC News Persian and DW Persian. Where a domestic Iranian voice is carried, it is limited to outlets that are not blocked persons, labeled by ownership, and reproduced strictly on a link-and-extract basis under the informational-materials exemption.
- 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b)(3)
- IEEPA informational-materials exemption (Berman Amendment, as amended by the Free Trade in Ideas Act of 1994).
- 31 C.F.R. § 560.210(c); § 560.315
- Iran (ITSR) exemption and definition.
- 31 C.F.R. § 515.206; § 515.332
- Cuba (CACR) exemption and definition.
- OFAC SDN List · EU consolidated list
- Lists screened against for exclusion.
This page states Oxuz's editorial and compliance methodology and the public authorities it relies upon; it is not legal advice.
Source register & maintenance
The register below is representative; the complete list is maintained internally. Each entry carries its jurisdiction, its ownership or control, and a status reflecting the screens above.
| Source | Country | Ownership | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBC | United Kingdom | Public-service (Royal Charter) | Verified |
| France Médias MondeFrance 24, RFI | France | Public-service | Verified |
| ARD · ZDF · Deutsche Welle | Germany | Public / public international | Verified |
| RAI | Italy | Public-service | Verified |
| RTVE | Spain | Public-service | Verified |
| SRG SSR | Switzerland | Public-service | Verified |
| NHK | Japan | Public-service | Verified |
| NPR · PBS | United States | Non-profit public media | Verified |
| TRT | Türkiye | State-controlled public | Eligible · labeled |
| IRIB | Iran | State (Supreme Leader) | Excluded · SDN |
The EBU and its associate members (including NHK, CBC/Radio-Canada, and ABC/SBS Australia) are listed first; the remaining unions (ABU, NABA, ASBU, AIR–IAB, African Union of Broadcasting, CBU) are added in subsequent revisions, each subjected to the screens above.
Maintenance & correction
The register is re-screened against the OFAC SDN and EU consolidated lists each quarter and whenever those lists are updated; a source newly designated is removed on the next screen. Union membership is reconfirmed on the same cadence, and this page is dated at each revision.
To question an inclusion, an exclusion, or an attribution, contact us. Corrections to source labeling are made promptly and noted in the revision date above. See also our corrections policy.