Standards
How we verify
Readers should be able to see the strength of a claim without taking our word for it. That is what the labels are for.
Evidence labels
- FIRSTHAND
- A personal account given by the person it happened to, reviewed before publication.
- DOCUMENTED
- Supported by primary documents such as policy, correspondence or an official record.
- CORROBORATED
- Independently confirmed by a second source, witness or record.
- DISPUTED
- A party named in the record contests part of it. The dispute is published alongside.
- INSTITUTION RESPONDED
- The institution named was invited to respond and its reply is on the record.
- UPDATED
- This record has been corrected or expanded. The change log is public.
- COMMENTARY
- Analysis or argument by the editorial team, not testimony or evidence.
Sourcing
Primary documents are preferred to reporting about documents. Where only reporting exists, the record says so. Where a source may disappear, we archive it and link the archived copy.
Review
Every account is read by an editor before publication. Verifiable details are checked. Details that cannot be verified are either removed or clearly marked as unverified testimony.
Naming people
Institutions and public officials acting in their public role can be named. Private individuals are named only with consent, or where they are already unavoidably public in the matter at hand.
Medical and legal claims
The archive does not publish medical conclusions. It publishes what a person says happened to them, what documents record, and what a qualified body determined, each labeled as such.
Corrections
Errors are corrected in public, dated, on the record itself. Request a correction and you will get an answer either way.