Editorial standards
What we hold ourselves to, written plainly enough to be held to it.
Sourcing
Every story that turns on a number lists where the number came from. Where we interviewed people, we say how many and when. Anonymity is granted where naming someone would put them at risk, and the reason is stated in the story.
Corrections
Corrections appear at the foot of the story they concern, dated, and on the corrections page. We do not silently edit a published story to fix a factual error, and we do not remove stories from the archive at the request of their subjects.
Sponsored work
Paid content is labelled “Paid content” in a box at the top of the page and is never written by the newsroom. There is no arrangement under which a subject can pay to be reported on, or to avoid it.
Photography
Photographs are captioned and credited. We do not stage documentary images, and we do not use an image from one place to illustrate an event in another.
Letters
We publish a selection of letters each Sunday with the writer’s name and town. We edit for length and clarity, never for meaning.