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Guide to Editorial Standards and Professional Conduct

We adopt the activation of accountability journalism and the fight against political deception. Therefore, we focus on fact-checking the information provided in data and statements issued by the three authorities (executive, judicial, and regulatory/legislative), as well as statements made by public figures that concern public affairs, including journalists and influencers, and what the public publishes and influences in broad or specialized sectors of the public.

We also adopt the principles followed by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN), as well as the Journalism Trust Initiative by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Chapter one

Ethical principles and editorial policies

Independence

  1. “Tafnied” takes an observer’s stance towards authorities of all kinds, including their affiliated entities and public actors, and engages in debunking their discourse and what is circulated about them as part of activating accountability journalism.
  2. “Tafnied” applies political independence policies and does not react positively or negatively to any political campaigns.
  3. “Tafnied” does not allow any funded entity, if it exists, to interfere in its work policies.
  4. Each editor or team coordinator has the right to refrain from carrying out assignments that involve promotion or political bias in favor of or against any party.
  5. Employees of the organization are prohibited from combining fact-checking work with any political activity (joining a political party, holding a political position, or publicly expressing their political affiliations). Previous political activity does not prevent journalists from joining “Tafnied”, provided they fully commit to refraining from engaging in political work while working for the institution، and the commitment to not allowing any previous political affiliation to influence the work within the institution, and the management of the institution has the right to cease dealing with any information fact-checker who demonstrates bias in their work.
  6. Information fact-checkers at Tafnied are prohibited from working on any material that the editor has a direct interest in or is directly involved with. If this is proven, the institution has the right to terminate the contract with the information fact-checker.

Objectivity

“Tafnied” and its team are committed to the principles of objectivity and inclusiveness, which include:

  1. Providing complete coverage of news elements in published materials.
  2. Using background information in a contextually relevant manner, without influencing the reader’s opinion.
  3. Avoiding the omission of any aspect of an issue that would distort the facts.
  4. Giving equal space to different narratives on the same issue and avoiding selectivity in dealing with specific sources.
  5. Journalists do not impose their personal opinions on the reader.
  6. Not publishing distorted, truncated, or fabricated facts and statements in an unfaithful manner.
  7. Allowing the right to reply and correction for sources related to the published issues.
  8. Avoiding the use of non-objective sensational methods and presenting facts objectively without exaggeration or trivialization.
  9. Avoiding the use of language that promotes exaggeration, derision, or emotionally charged words to influence the reader.
  10. Using visual and audio materials to support interpretation and simplification without compromising objectivity.

Accuracy

“Tafnied” and its team are committed to the principles of accuracy and clarity, which include:

  1. Not publishing materials that contain errors in numbers or data.
  2. Not publishing materials that contain false or fabricated information.
  3. Not publishing materials that contain errors in concepts and terminology.
  4. Clearly indicating information that has not been verified.
  5. Respecting intellectual property rights, copyright, and citation rules.
  6. Disclosing archival content and its history.
  7. Correcting misinformation as soon as the truth is discovered.
  8. Differentiating between quotes and texts written by the journalist.
  9. Using quotations and information in their proper context without manipulation.
  10. Clearly disclosing and explaining the use of fabricated visual or audio materials.
  11. Indicating the date, source, and description of images and videos.
  12. Crafting headlines that accurately and clearly reflect the content of the published material.
  13. Headlines should not use sensational or exaggerated techniques that alter or distort the meaning.
  14. Headlines should be free from selectivity in presenting narratives.

Non-Aligned

“Tafnied” and its team are committed to the principles of Non-Aligned​, which include:

  1. Editors refraining from personal biases.
  2. Maintaining fairness by ensuring equal representation of different sources in a single story based on merit.
  3. Ensuring equal space for different sources.
  4. Using headlines in a non-biased manner that achieves balance in presenting the issue.
  5. Clearly distinguishing between news, opinion, and advertisements, if applicable.

Integrity and fairness

“Tafnied” and its team are committed to the principles of integrity and fairness, which include:

  1. Not exposing information sources to any danger resulting from publication.
  2. Avoiding the use of descriptions and roles that may imply predetermined biases in a way that affects the reader’s confidence in the source.
  3. Respecting individual privacy in a manner that does not conflict with the society’s right to knowledge.
  4. Ensuring that visual and audio materials do not contain any harmful content towards individuals, if such harm exceeds the news value.
  5. Not publishing accusations that are not made by a relevant source and without clear evidence.
  6. Adhering to the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”.

Publishing Ethics and Human Rights

“Tafnied” and its team are committed to publishing ethics and human rights, which include:

  1. Not infringing upon human dignity and the value of life.
  2. Avoiding hate speech, incitement to hatred, and incitement to crimes and violence.
  3. Not justifying evil, sin, crime, or wrongful acts.
  4. Not displaying details of acts of cruelty, physical weakness, torture, or abuse unless in cases of investigations that expose corruption or abuse of power, with the condition of obtaining consent from the individuals depicted and providing prior notice to the public that the published materials contain scenes of violence or cruelty.
  5. Refraining from infringing upon individuals’ private lives.
  6. Avoiding insult, defamation, vilification, discrimination, or stereotyping of individuals or groups.

Rules for Source Selection and Handling

  1. Attribute statements and actions to information sources.
  2. Publish information sourced directly from primary sources, not secondary ones.
  3. Source information from credible and reliable sources.
  4. Do not attribute information to undisclosed collective sources.
  5. The name of the source is not hidden unless the case deserves it and the reason is stated.
  6. Indicate how the information was obtained.
  7. Verify information from its sources before publishing.
  8. Clearly declare if materials are sourced from the public.

Social Media Policies

  1. The institution is committed to the same professional standards on its social media platforms as it adheres to on its website.
  2. The institution respects the privacy of the audience browsing its platforms, and employees are prohibited from using audience data outside the scope of promoting the platform and enhancing audience experiences.
  3. All employees of the institution are required to comply with the institution’s policies on their social media accounts, particularly adhering to the rules of impartiality and refraining from providing political support to any party.

Chapter II

Fact-Checking Methodology

1- Mechanism for Selecting Verification Materials

“Tafnied” focuses on verifying statements and data issued by various authorities (executive, regulatory/legislative, judicial). Therefore, we closely monitor daily updates from these three authorities through their official platforms or various media outlets.

“Tafnied” is concerned with verifying statements made by public figures that are relevant to public affairs, including journalists and influencers.

“Tafnied” also pays attention to verifying materials published by the public that relate to public affairs and have an impact on broad or specialized sectors of the public (general public, journalists and media professionals, researchers and academics, economists and businesspeople, civil society institutions, etc.).

2- Mechanism for Verifying Statements and Data

  1. Did the claimant make this statement or was it fabricated or manipulated? You should make sure that you obtained the claim from its original source, which in this case may be the original video clip of the statement or the original link to the official statement on the government agency’s website or the verified social media account of the official. Here, it is important to investigate the authenticity of the account, considering that some social media platforms provide verification marks in exchange for a fee, which may compromise their credibility. It is also necessary to ensure that the account owner has actual control over their accounts. In this case, relying on a second source to relay the statement or claim, such as newspapers or newsletters that may manipulate the content of the claim, should be avoided, except in two cases:
    • If the statement is exclusive to the media outlet that reported it, in which case you can contact the media outlet to verify the original text of the statement if it is available, or directly contact the source to verify the accuracy of the reporting if possible.
    • If the statement is in an undocumented event, but it is published by multiple media outlets in the same context, known for their professionalism and competence, the fact-checker should verify other sources, such as eyewitnesses, to confirm the accuracy of the facts whenever possible.
  2. Break down the statement/declaration into a set of key information without taking the information out of its context, and focus on what affects the public’s interests or what a wide range of people may want to verify its accuracy. Start testing its accuracy.
  3. Dissect each piece of information that contains numbers or data and begin testing the accuracy of each one by researching the original sources for that data and numbers. Always stick to the temporal, spatial, and objective context of the information as you fact-check it.
  4. Check local dialects. If the statement or claim you are checking is in an uncommon dialect or an unfamiliar language and has been translated or adapted into a more common language, first verify the consistency between the published and circulated statement and the original text in its dialect. Use experts in local dialects and languages when necessary.
  5. Make your goal to reach the origin of the story, not to work on denying it. This can be achieved by searching for evidence that supports the claim and presents different angles of its narrative to the reader without selectivity or manipulation. Before looking for sources to deny the claim that present an alternative narrative, the main objective of the fact-checking process is to reach the origin of the story, not to deny the claim.
  6. Use local and international open-source information sources to obtain all the relevant data and numbers related to the claim being fact-checked.
  7. Establish direct communication with sources of denial and claims whenever possible and declare your steps and sources transparently to the public.
  8. Review the results, one of the most important steps before announcing your findings to the public. Collaborate with the responsible primary editor to re-evaluate your assumptions and the results you have reached, and have them tested again to ensure their accuracy.
  9. Announce the fact-checking results to the public after ensuring that the final results of the fact-checking meet the conditions for publication.
  10. Follow-up and correction should not be neglected. You should monitor the audience’s comments on the fact-checking material and interact with their feedback to clarify any ambiguities or correct any mistakes

3-Categorization of Verification Materials

Not Accurate

This means that most of the statement is true, but there are some inaccurate pieces of information, such as inaccuracies in numbers, sequence, descriptions, symbols, and so on.

MOSTLY TRUE

This means that the claim is mostly true, but it needs clarification or contains an inaccurate piece of information that does not significantly affect the overall judgment of the claim.

TRUE​

If the statement is indeed true, but there is a state of doubt about it by the public.

Inconsistent

In case of making a statement that is preceded by different statements regarding the information by the same person or another official, and we cannot determine which one is true.

Misleading

In case of making a deceptive statement with the intention of misleading the public opinion, evading political responsibility, or claiming an achievement that is not true.

FALSE

This means that the claim is completely false.

Selective

In case of announcing a set of data and concealing another set of data about a certain subject, with the aim of highlighting the positive aspects and hiding the negative ones, or hiding a portion of the truth with the intention of manipulating the public.

Doubtful

In case the statement contains information that is difficult to achieve in reality, such as a significant increase in percentages and numbers that do not align with the temporal and objective context, without complete data to prove the inaccuracy of that information.

Provocation

“In case of making a statement with the aim of media sensation, the information or statement itself may be true, but it is used in a spatial or temporal context for the purpose of media provocation.”

4-Mechanisms of weighing between sources and arguments

General indicators do not contradict each other, as each indicator relies on its own set of criteria to evaluate a specific issue. It is not possible to refute the result of an indicator based on another indicator that operates with different criteria and methodologies.

International indicators that address issues based on official government information do not refute local government data.

In refutation materials, there should be consistency in the temporal, spatial, and objective frameworks with the materials being refuted.

Both statements and declarations can contain errors. However, press statements and televised statements by officials, especially during public events, are often more susceptible to human error or intentional manipulation of numbers and information. Therefore, official information sources of the state (bulletins, publications, official statements) that have been verified to be error-free are usually more credible and preferable over statements made by officials, as long as the objective, temporal, and spatial frameworks between the statement and the official information match.
Specialized entities of competence are usually more preferred, and their information is relatively more up-to-date compared to political and regulatory officials.

Chapter III

Internal professional practices

1-Internal structure and responsibilities

– The editor-in-chief is responsible for implementing the work policies and guiding principles of the institution and developing them in collaboration with the core team. The editorial team have a right for requesting the development of editorial policies that align with the latest developments.

– The editor-in-chief holds ultimate responsibility before the public and the management of the institution for the accuracy and quality of the content published on the institution’s platforms.

– The team coordinators are responsible to the editor-in-chief for the accuracy and quality of the content provided by their teams.

– The publishing manager is responsible to the editor-in-chief for publishing on the institution’s platforms, implementing policies for public engagement, and ensuring that the published materials align with the approved content by the editorial management.

– In case of any disagreement between an editor or collaborator and their responsible supervisor regarding any material, they have the right to request intervention from a third party, either from other team coordinators or from the editorial management, to resolve the issue.

– Pre-publication verification mechanisms are applied by the team coordinators, with a final review before publication. At this stage, publication may be halted and the material returned to the editor in case of any flaws or issues.

2-Internal work environment

  1. The team members for fact-checking are selected from experienced journalists in the field, and “TAFNIED” welcomes training journalists on verification rules to prepare them for joining its team.
  2. “TAFNIED” is committed to providing training for new collaborators on its editorial policy and work methodology.
  3. “TAFNIED” is not committed to hiring all trainees unless they demonstrate the necessary competence during their training period and it aligns with the organization’s needs.
  4. “TAFNIED” is committed to surveying and measuring the team’s adherence to the adopted policies and methodology, and providing regular training to enhance the team’s efficiency.
  5. “TAFNIED” announces its working team, which has completed the training period and has been contracted on an annual basis, through its website. The contract can be for full-time, part-time, or freelance cooperation.
  6. “TAFNIED” provides opportunities for fact-checkers and journalists (according to its needs) without discrimination based on gender, race, religion, or color.
  7. “TAFNIED” is committed to reaching a clear agreement on financial compensation and rewards with each editor and employee, which is stated in the annual contract based on the nature of the editor’s work and agreed-upon tasks. Payment is made on a regular monthly basis.
  8. “TAFNIED” is fully committed to its obligations towards its employees during the agreed-upon annual contract periods. If the organization does not wish to renew the annual contract, it must notify the editor or employee 60 days before the renewal date. This excludes cases that require immediate termination, which are specified in this agreement and stated in the annual contract.
  9. In case of ending the work with any employee who has been collaborating with “TAFNIED” for more than a year, the organization is committed to providing a financial bonus of one month for each year of work for full-time or part-time collaborators. For freelance collaborators, an estimated bonus is calculated by the editorial management.
  10. Each editor is entitled to a weekly day off, which is agreed upon with their responsible editor or with the editorial management.
  11. “TAFNIED” is committed to transparency and equality in providing training opportunities to its employees, each according to their specialization, while considering the organization’s needs in developing the work team.
  12. “TAFNIED” is committed to supporting any employee who suffers from non-objective harm as a result of their work in the organization, and to providing the possible protection for the editorial team members who have experienced physical harm in hostile environments.
  13. The work mechanism within “TAFNIED” is based on mutual respect among colleagues, and any behavior that implies bullying, harassment, or bias against any colleague is strictly prohibited.
  14. Any colleague has the right to file a complaint to the Editor-in-Chief or the General Manager against any practice of bullying, harassment, or bias. The management is committed to forming an independent investigation committee to investigate the complaint. If the accusation is proven, the guilty colleague will be fairly punished, starting with deduction and warning, and ending with termination, according to the investigation committee’s recommendations.
  15. Any editor or group of editors has the right to file a complaint or request regarding the work mechanism through their direct manager, who is committed to directly forwarding it to the editorial management. The management, in turn, is committed to discussing the complaint or suggestion and working on improving and creating a work environment that enhances the team’s efficiency, improves its level, and ensures its rights.

3-Complaints and Corrections

"TAFNIED" deals positively and promptly with public reports regarding errors in published materials, which it provides through various methods such as its website or its different communication channels. The organization corrects the error if the report is verified to be accurate and does not engage with messages that carry personal or biased perspectives, or contain incorrect corrections in their content.

"TAFNIED" provides a dedicated space at the end of each published article on its website for the public to write any potential corrections for errors.

If we receive a correction that changes the verdict of the fact-check we published, we commit at "TAFNIED" to publish the correction on the official website of the organization or the platform where the fact-check was originally published.

If we receive a correction that does not change the verdict of the fact-check but adds information or requires further explanation, "TAFNIED" commits to developing the published material to meet the required professional standards.

"TAFNIED" deals promptly with offensive comments or those that contain violations and deletes them.

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