Editorial standards

These are the principles our journalists and editors work by. They are commitments, and you can hold us to them. If we fall short, write to info@silka-group.com.

Accuracy and verification

Accuracy comes before speed. A fact goes into a story only once we have checked it against a reliable source: a document, a first-hand witness, an official record, or more than one independent source.

When we cannot verify something, we say so or leave it out. We do not publish rumour as fact or repeat a social media claim just because it is circulating.

We check numbers, dates, names and titles before publication, and we say when sources disagree on a figure.

Sourcing and attribution

• We name our sources whenever we can, and say how they know what they tell us.
• We say when information comes from a government body, company or other interested party, and describe the interest.
• We credit material taken from another outlet, news agency or document, and never present other people’s reporting as our own.
• Quotations are accurate. We change one only to fix an obvious slip of spelling or grammar, never its meaning, and we say when we have translated it.

News, analysis and opinion

A news report tells readers what happened, based on facts we have checked. Analysis explains what the facts mean; opinion argues a point of view. We label both clearly, so readers can tell them from news at a glance.

A headline and summary must be supported by the story beneath them.

Fairness and right of reply

People and organisations we report on critically get a fair chance to respond before publication, and reasonable time to do so. If they decline or do not answer, we say so. Where advance notice would endanger someone or let evidence be destroyed, we may publish first and seek a response without delay.

We report the main sides of a dispute, and avoid language that stereotypes people because of religion, nationality, gender, disability or background.

If you are named in a story and think it wrong or unfair, write to info@silka-group.com. We will consider a reply or a correction.

Images and credits

• Every photograph, graphic and video carries a credit and, where one applies, its licence.
• We use only pictures we have the right to use: our own, commissioned, licensed, or under an open licence whose terms we follow.
• We never alter a picture to change what it shows. Cropping and resizing are routine, and we say when we crop a licensed picture.
• A caption says what the picture shows, and flags archive or illustrative images.

Automated tools and AI

We use automated tools, including AI, to help prepare stories, never in place of editorial judgement.

Every AI-assisted draft is checked by an editor before publication. The editor is responsible for it as for any other story, and its facts, quotations, figures and names are checked against sources.

The first explainers on sisi.news were drafted with the help of AI tools and checked against published sources. They are credited to the sisi.news Desk. They were published before an editor’s full review, which is still to come, so until it is done they are a temporary exception to the rule above. Where AI makes a material contribution to a story, we say so on it.

We do not present AI-generated images, audio or video as real, and we do not put unpublished confidential material, or anything that could identify a protected source, into AI tools.

Conflicts of interest

Journalists and editors must tell their editor before reporting on a matter in which they have a personal, financial or political stake. The editor decides whether they step aside or the story carries a disclosure.

We do not accept money, gifts or favours in return for coverage, and we label paid or sponsored material plainly. If the interests of the site’s owners or funders are directly involved in a story, we say so in it.

Protecting sources

We protect people who give us information in confidence, and we do not identify a confidential source unless the source agrees. We tell sources honestly what protection we can and cannot give: we cannot control what a court or the authorities may demand of us, and email is not a fully secure channel.