How we decide what to publish.

Accuracy

We verify before we publish. Where a claim is contested or unconfirmed, we say so plainly rather than implying certainty we do not have.

Sourcing

We attribute information to its source. Where we rely on another publication's reporting, we say which one and link to it.

News and opinion

Opinion and analysis are labelled as such and kept separate from news reporting.

Advertising

Advertising is clearly marked. Sponsored content, where it appears, is labelled and is never presented as editorial. No advertiser has any influence over our reporting.

Use of AI

We use artificial intelligence as a tool in producing this publication, and we think readers are entitled to know where and how.

A person is responsible for everything we publish. No article appears on this site without a human editor reading it, checking it and taking responsibility for it. The byline on a story is the person accountable for it.

Where we use it

  • Research and drafting. We sometimes use AI tools to gather background, summarise source material or produce a first draft. Every fact in the finished article is verified against the original source by a person before publication.
  • Editing. We use AI for spelling, grammar and clarity in the same way we would use a subeditor.
  • Automated summaries. Our weekly review is assembled automatically from articles we have already published and checked. It is read by an editor before it goes out, and it contains no reporting that has not already appeared on this site.

Where we do not use it

  • We do not publish AI-generated images or audio as though they were real photographs or recordings. Any illustration that is not a photograph is labelled.
  • We do not use AI to invent quotes, sources, statistics or events. A quote in our reporting was said by the person it is attributed to.
  • We do not publish anything no person has read.
  • We do not use AI to produce articles at volume for search traffic.

If we get it wrong

An error is our error regardless of how the article was drafted. Corrections are handled the same way as any other, under our corrections policy.

Editorial responsibility for this publication rests with Sibahle Zondo, who can be reached at [email protected].

Last reviewed: August 2026

Who is responsible

Sibahle Zondo