Sourcing and verification

Readers should always be able to see where information comes from. This page sets out how our publications choose their sources and how a story is checked before it is published.

Primary sources first

We go to the source of the information wherever it exists: the document, the ruling, the official figures, the statement or the person who was there. Reports, judgments and public records are read in full, not repeated from someone else's summary.

Named sources

Sources are named in the text, so the reader can judge them. Every article lists the sources it is based on. A quotation is always attributed to the person who said it, and we say where and when it was said if it was not said to us.

The work of other media

When a story was first reported by another news organisation, we say so and name it. We do not present another outlet's reporting as our own, and we do not copy its words. Where we add to a story, the article makes clear which facts we have established ourselves.

Anonymous sources

Anonymity is the exception, and it is weighed every time. We use an anonymous source only when the information matters enough to justify it, when it has been confirmed elsewhere, and when the source has good reason to stay unnamed. The article explains why the source is not named and how the source knows what they describe. We protect the identity of a source who has been promised anonymity.

How a story is checked

Every article is checked against the sources it rests on, claim by claim. Every quotation is checked against what was actually said, in the words that were used. Names, numbers and dates are checked against their source. When sources disagree, both accounts are given.

A story that does not hold is not published. It waits until the facts are settled, or it is dropped.

Material from social media

A post, a picture or a video found online is treated as a claim to be checked, not as a fact. We establish who published it, when and where, and whether it shows what it appears to show, before we report it. If something cannot be verified but is newsworthy in itself, the article says plainly that it has not been verified.

Pictures

Photographs and graphics are credited. We use pictures we have the right to use, and a picture is never altered in a way that changes what it shows. An illustration, a reconstruction or a picture from an earlier event is labelled as such.