Beyond reporting facts, what standards must media work meet to be trustworthy?

Be factually accurate, cover a topic from many angles, keep a critical distance from every group, and confirm a story with at least two independent sources.

These are the working principles that separate journalism from mere relaying:

• Factual / fair (sachgerecht) — represent events accurately, not selectively.
• Diverse (vielfältig) — show a range of viewpoints rather than one.
• Independent, with critical distance to all groupings — owe nothing to any party, company or lobby; treat each with the same scrutiny.
• At least two sources that describe the same sequence of events — single-source claims can be mistaken, planted or self-serving, so corroboration is the baseline guard against publishing something false.

The two-source rule in particular is a practical embodiment of "search for the truth": one account is a claim, two independent accounts that agree are evidence.