How this desk works.
Every briefing we publish names its sources, dates its reporting and separates what is reported from what we conclude. This page sets out the rules behind that, so readers, clients and partners can hold us to them.
How this newsroom works.
Sourced and attributed
Every briefing traces its figures to the document, dataset or report they came from, listed on the article itself.
Sponsorship is labelled
A briefing published on behalf of an advertiser is labelled as sponsored wherever it appears, with the advertiser named.
Editorial is separate from advertising
Advertisers have no influence over what the newsroom reports or how it reports it. Placements sit beside the reporting, never inside it.
Corrections and accountability
We correct errors, date our coverage and name the author. The newsroom publishes analysis, not disinformation, and does not profile individuals unlawfully.
How a briefing is produced.
The same six rules stand behind every piece the desk files, from a country briefing to commissioned research.
Sourced before it is written
A briefing is built from dated public sources: national electoral commissions, statistics offices, official gazettes, court rulings and parliamentary records, African Union, ECOWAS and UN bodies, and IMF, World Bank and AfDB data first; wire services and outlets of record for the reporting around them.
At least four sources inside eight days
Every briefing carries at least six references and is published only when at least four of them were published within the eight days before it. Where the argument needs older reference data, the figure carries its year and the body that publishes it.
Fact, allegation and inference kept apart
Reported facts are attributed to the source that carries them. Allegations and contested claims are attributed to the party making them and are never written as established fact. Analysis, inference and projection are the desk's own reading.
Nothing unverifiable is published
No statistic, poll result, vote count, quotation, date or source is invented, estimated or extrapolated. A claim that cannot be confirmed against two independent credible sources is left out of the briefing.
Dated, and kept current
Every briefing carries the date of its reporting. Where an older briefing is rewritten around a newer development, the page says so and carries the date the reporting was brought forward.
Sponsorship stays out of the reporting
A briefing published on behalf of an advertiser is labelled as sponsored with the advertiser named. Advertisers have no influence over what the desk reports, and corrections are published whoever is paying.
Something wrong in a briefing? Tell the desk and we will correct it. Partners commissioning research receive the same method in writing with their brief.
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