Method

How we verify a claim

The checklist every VERITATEM piece passes before publication.

By The Editors

Before anything publishes under the VERITATEM mark, it clears the same checklist. This explainer is the checklist, in the open.

The verification checklist

  1. Locate the primary source. A claim is only as good as the document behind it. We link the primary source; if we can’t, we say why.
  2. Check the vintage. Data has a date. We state it, and we don’t present old figures as current.
  3. Separate fact from analysis. Reporting, analysis, and opinion are labelled distinctly.
  4. Independent read. A second editor confirms material factual claims before merge.
  5. Correctability. If we later learn we were wrong, the corrections record is updated and the piece is annotated.

Why this is public

Publishing the method is part of the method. If you can see how we check a claim, you can check our checking. That is the point of an independent, fact-based outlet — see editorial independence.