The NewsCodes Working Group is pleased to release the Q3 2025 update to our NewsCodes vocabularies.

MediaTopics updates

As usual most of the updates are to the Media Topic vocabulary.

New concepts (3)

• futsal
• beach soccer
• pesticide and herbicide

Retired concepts (1)

• water – 

Label changes (3)

• hazardous materials -> hazardous material
• waste materials -> waste material
• pests -> pest and pest control 

Definition changes (16)

• environment
• environmental pollution
• air pollution
• environmental clean-up
• hazardous material
• water pollution
• nature
• ecosystem
• endangered species
• invasive species
• animal disease
• plant disease
• animal
• flowers and plants
• pest and pest control
• sustainability

Modified notes (2)

animal disease,
pest and pest control

No concepts were retired, had hierarchy moves or modified wikidata mappings this time.

Translation updates

Many terms and definitions in the German translation were updated to reflect recent changes in the English versions.

Norwegian and Swedish terms were updated to reflect recent changes in the English versions.

2025-Q2 updates recap

It seems that we didn’t post a news item about the 2025-Q2 changes to Media Topics. Here’s a summary:

• New term vegetarianism and veganism
• climate change – definition changed
• global warming retired. Use climate change instead.
• conservation – definition changed
• energy saving – retired. Use medtop:20001374 sustainability instead.
• parks -> nature preserve
• New Term: park and playground (Child of leisure venue medtop:20000553)
• natural resources -> natural resource
• energy resources retired. Use the relevant term from the business branch instead.
• land resources retired.
• forests -> forest. Moved to be child of nature.
• mountains -> mountain. Moved to be child of nature.
• population growth – retired. Use “population and census” instead.
• oceans -> ocean. Moved to be child of nature.
• rivers -> river. Moved to be child of nature.
• wetlands -> wetland. Moved to be child of nature.
• mankind -> demographic group.

Trust Indicator updates

The Trust Indicator vocabulary had one hierarchy change: factCheckingPolicy was made a child of editorialPolicy.

Also, the notes on terms have been updated to give credit to The Trust Project for their work and to indicate that the term “Trust Indicators®” is now a registered trademark of The Trust Project.

Working with IPTC NewsCodes

See the official Media Topic vocabulary on the IPTC Controlled Vocabulary server, and an easier-to-navigate tree view. An Excel version of IPTC Media Topics is also available. Other NewsCodes are available via the CV Server .

See the IPTC NewsCodes Guidelines document for information on our vocabularies and how you can use them in your projects.