What defines the format of the NEWS.Debian file?

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Dear all,

I am working on a package that triggers the Lintian tag
‘debian-news-entry-without-blank-line’. This prompted me to look
for a formal description of the format of NEWS.Debian. The problem
is:

 - It is not documented in the Policy that changelogs must finish by an empty
   line (and NEWS.Debian files are not mentionned at all),

 - The Developer's Reference recommends to use dpkg-parsechangelog, and gives
   an example that does not include a trailing white line, which is parsed
   without warnings by dpkg-parsechangelog.

 - Lintian motivates its tag by the behaviour of apt-listchanges, but is
   apt-listchanges normative for NEWS.Debian, or is it just a consumer of it?

So what is your feeling about this, would it be better to submit a patch to the
Developer's Reference or the Policy, or to report a bug on apt-listchanges for
making unwarranted assumptions on NEWS.Debian?

Have a nice day,

-- 
Charles