Editorial policy

We publish three kinds of article, and every one of them is labelled in our system as it is written: original reporting, which is our own work; aggregation, which draws on reporting by others and credits them by name and link; and translation, where we render reporting first published in another language and say which publication it came from.

When we aggregate, we say so on the page. We do not present another newsroom’s work as our own, and we do not rewrite a single outlet’s article and call it reporting. Where we synthesise a story from several sources, we name them.

Facts are checked before publication, not after. Where a claim is contested we attribute it rather than assert it, and where we do not know something we say that instead of implying otherwise.

Anything published in exchange for payment — sponsored content, paid profiles, promoted listings — is labelled as paid on the page itself. That label is applied automatically by our publishing system rather than at an editor’s discretion, so it cannot be forgotten.

We use software to help find and draft stories. Nothing written with that assistance is published without a person reading it, checking it against the sources, and taking responsibility for it. The byline on a story is a person, always.

Our journalists do not accept payment, gifts or hospitality from the people and organisations they cover.