Institutional
Editorial standards
How we decide what to publish, how we cite the records we write from, and what we do when we get something wrong.
1 What this document is
These are the rules Threadline News is held to. They apply to everything published under this masthead. Where an article falls short of them, the remedy is a correction under clause 6, logged publicly, not a quiet edit.
2 Before publication
Everything published on this site is reviewed and edited before it goes live. Nothing publishes unread.
A draft is read against the documents it was written from. Figures are checked against the records they came from, the headline is checked against what the article actually establishes, and the article is edited for accuracy and plain language before it is published. Where a draft cannot be squared with its records, it does not run.
Responsibility for what is published sits with the Editor-in-Chief. The roles that carry editorial responsibility, and the route to each of them, are listed on the Masthead.
3 Sourcing
Every article is written from public documents and records, and cites them. Every article carries a sources block at the foot of the body listing the documents and records it was written from. Where a source is a public record, we link the record itself, not a write-up of it.
A claim about a vote, a bill or a donation links the primary record. A claim about a drug, a trial or a health risk cites the study or the regulator and links it. A claim about a filing links the filing.
When an article builds on another outlet's work, it says so at the top of the article and links them there.
4 People accused of crimes
Crime coverage runs through our news sections rather than a crime section, and these rules apply to any article about an arrest, a charge or an indictment, in whichever section it appears.
4.1 · When we name a person
We name a person accused of a crime when the charge is on the public record and the person's identity is material to the story: a public official, a matter of public safety, or a case of clear public interest. We do not name a person on the basis of an arrest alone where no charge follows.
We do not name minors accused of crimes. The single exception is a case in which a minor is charged as an adult on the public record, and naming then requires the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, given in writing.
4.2 · Charges are not convictions
A charge is an allegation by a prosecutor. It is not a finding by a court. Every story about a charge says so, carries the current case status, and keeps saying so until a court decides.
When charges are dismissed or a defendant is acquitted, that outcome writes itself into every article we have ever published about the charge, including the old one a reader finds through search. A dismissal is never quieter than the charge: same position, same size, same weight.
4.3 · When a name comes down
We do not unpublish articles to resolve complaints. The default remedy when a case ends without a conviction is the case status update described above, which states the outcome on every relevant page.
A person may ask us to remove their name from coverage of a charge that was dropped or dismissed. We consider removal where there was no conviction, the person is not a public figure, and continued naming causes harm out of proportion to any public interest. The Editor-in-Chief decides, in writing. Where a name is removed, the article carries a dated note saying that a name was removed and why. Requests go to the same address with Name removal in the subject line.
5 Health coverage
Nothing we publish is medical advice. Every claim about a drug, a trial or a risk cites the study or the regulator and links it, and states sample size and funding where they matter to the claim.
Health articles carry a standing line pointing readers to their own clinician.
6 Corrections and revisions
We distinguish three things, and we label them differently:
We do not silently rewrite. We do not delete an article to resolve a complaint; we correct it and say what we corrected. The standards editor decides corrections and keeps the log. The full log is public at Corrections. Requests go to the same address, with Correction in the subject line.
7 Machine-pulled records
Some material on this site is pulled automatically from official sources: roll-call votes, filings, agency actions. It is never presented as our own coverage. It carries no byline, and it is labelled with its source and its retrieval time on every surface where it appears.
8 Bylines
Threadline News publishes institutionally. Articles appear as the work of the section desk that published them: Threadline Politics Desk, Business Desk, World Desk, Health Desk or Entertainment Desk. We do not carry individual bylines, and we do not invent people, credentials, quotes or reviews.