Corrections Policy

Our commitment

NEWS ANALYSIS corrects errors openly. An article that has been quietly edited leaves a reader unable to tell whether what they remember reading was ever true, which is a worse outcome than the original mistake. When we change something material, we say so on the article.

How to report an error

Write to us through our Contact page. The most useful reports include the article title or address, the specific sentence at issue, what you believe is correct, and where that can be verified. We will check the claim against the original source material rather than against our own wording.

You do not need to be the subject of an article to report an error in it, and we do not treat a correction request as a complaint. Readers who tell us we are wrong are doing us a service.

How we classify changes

Typographical and formatting fixes. Spelling, punctuation, a broken link or a display problem. These do not change meaning, and we fix them without a note.

Clarifications. The original was accurate but open to being misread. We rewrite for clarity and add a note explaining what was ambiguous, because a reader who took the earlier meaning deserves to know.

Corrections. A fact was wrong: a figure, a name, a date, an attribution, a sequence of events. We fix the text and add a correction note stating what was wrong and what it now says. The note stays permanently.

Substantial corrections. An error that changes the conclusion of the article or materially misrepresents a person or organisation. We correct the text, carry a prominent note at the top, and where the error was carried in the headline we change that too.

Retractions. If the central claim of an article cannot be supported, we retract it. The article remains accessible with a clear retraction notice rather than disappearing, so the record of what we published stays intact.

Updates that are not corrections

A developing story changes as facts arrive. Adding new information to a running story is an update, not a correction, and we mark it as such with the time of the change. We distinguish the two because conflating them would let a genuine error hide inside a routine update.

What we will not do

We will not remove an accurate article because its subject dislikes it. We will not alter quotations after publication except to fix a transcription error, which we then disclose. We will not delete an article to make an error disappear, and we will not backdate a change to imply the original said something it did not.

Timing

Clear factual errors are corrected as soon as we have confirmed them. Where a claim needs investigation, we would rather take the time to get the correction right than issue a fast correction that is itself wrong. If a report requires checking with a third party, that can take longer, and we will say so if you have written to us.

Images and captions

Errors in captions are corrected on the same basis as errors in text. Where an image itself was wrong for the story, we replace it and note the change.

Why we keep the record

Correction notes are not an embarrassment to be minimised. They are the part of the process that lets a reader calibrate how much to trust the rest. A publication with no visible corrections is either extraordinarily lucky or not looking, and neither is reassuring.