Editorial Standards

A starting draft. The newsroom should adopt, amend and sign this before launch.

Verification

We publish what we can verify. A claim reaches print when it is on the record, documented, or confirmed by sources we judge reliable and independent of one another. Where a claim cannot be verified we either leave it out or say plainly that it is unverified.

Sources

We name sources wherever we can. We grant anonymity only where naming someone would expose them to real harm, never as a convenience, and an editor always knows who an anonymous source is.

Right of reply

Anyone criticised in a story is put on notice of the criticism and given a fair chance to respond before publication.

Independence

Commercial arrangements never influence editorial decisions. Advertisers and sponsors get no advance sight of coverage and no veto over it.

Conflicts of interest

Staff declare financial and personal interests that touch their beat, and step aside from stories those interests reach.

Machine assistance

We do not publish machine-generated reporting. Where a tool assists with production - transcription, translation, data work - a journalist checks the output and takes responsibility for it.