Fact-Checking Methodology

What we check

We take on a claim when it is verifiable, circulating widely enough to matter, and consequential — when people act on it: money spent, medicine taken, a form filed, a vote cast.

We do not check opinions, predictions, or matters of faith and taste. "The government is failing" is an opinion no evidence can settle; "the government raised the fee to X" is a claim that evidence can.

How we verify

• We go back to the primary source: the statute in the official gazette, the statement on the issuing body’s own site, or data as published by whoever produced it.
• We match figures against the most recent official release and state its date — a figure correct last year may be wrong today.
• We trace an image or clip to its origin — when and where it was taken — before judging what it is said to show.
• We seek comment from the body a claim is attributed to, and we say so when no reply comes.
• We archive a copy of every source we relied on, in case it is later taken down.

The verdicts

• True — the claim matches reality in substance and in its essential detail.
• Partly true — its core is sound but it carries an exaggeration or omission that changes the picture.
• Misleading — the individual facts hold, but their arrangement or missing context leads to a false conclusion.
• False — the claim has no basis, or contradicts documented evidence.
• Satire taken out of context — it began as openly satirical content, lifted from its source and spread as news.

What we publish with a verdict

Every verification piece sets out the claim as it circulates, the verdict, the evidence that produced it, and the sources of that evidence. We do not ask readers to take our word for it — we give them enough to reach the verdict themselves.

If a verdict turns out to be wrong

A verdict shown to be wrong is revisited in public: we correct the piece, state at the top what changed and why, and we do not delete it. Reversing a verdict is an announced event here, not a silent edit.

Anyone who believes we got it wrong can write to us through the Voice of the Citizen page with whatever evidence they hold.