Standards
How Alethman News reports
The news, with the record attached. These are the rules every article on this site follows.
Every article starts from the record
Alethman reads reports from outlets across India and the world and groups them into stories. An Alethman News article is written from the reports in one of those stories. The reports it draws on are listed under “The record” at the foot of the article, each linked to the outlet's own page, and the ones read in full for the article are marked.
Every figure has an owner
When outlets or officials give different numbers, such as a death toll, a vote count or a price, we set them side by side and say who gave each one and when. We do not average them, pick the largest, or state one as fact when the reports disagree. What no report we read could confirm, we say we could not confirm.
We take no side
We report what parties, governments, courts and companies said and did, in their words where it matters, and we describe how outlets framed a story. We do not tell readers what to conclude. Opinion lives on the founders' blog, signed, and never on this site.
What a claim check's label means
A claim check sets a public claim against the reports we read. Its label describes the state of the reporting, not the truth of the matter, and can change as the record does.
- Consistent with the record. The reports we read support the claim.
- Inconsistent with the record. Reports we read contradict the claim.
- Contested. Credible parties dispute it, and the record does not settle it.
- Unconfirmed. No report we read verifies it independently; it rests on the claimant's word.
- Missing context. Accurate as far as it goes, but it leaves out something the reports show matters.
How articles are written
Articles are drafted with the help of AI language tools that work only from the reports in the article's record. They do not add facts of their own. The Alethman newsroom is responsible for everything published here, and for correcting it.
People who are not public figures
We do not name victims, children, or private people accused of crimes, even when other outlets do. We name officials, institutions, companies and public figures acting in public.
Corrections
When we get something wrong, we fix it and say so at the foot of the article, with the date. Write to contact@alethman.com with the article's address and what you believe is wrong.
The live feed
The live feed shows the stories the most independent outlets are covering, straight from Alethman's reading of the news. Nothing in it is rewritten: each line is an outlet's own headline, linked to its report. Anyone may quote or embed it with the credit “Powered by Alethman”.