Editorial Standards

Nothing runs in The Naira Standard because it is plausible. It runs because it has been checked.

Every factual assertion is traced to a primary source: an official release, a filed document, a data set, or a named individual speaking on the record. Where a report rests on a single source, the article says so.

Economic figures receive particular scrutiny. Inflation prints, exchange rates, budget lines, debt stock and reserve positions are verified against the issuing institution, never against a secondary report of it. A number that is wrong in this paper is a number that will be wrong in ten others by evening.

Named sourcing is the standard. Anonymity is granted only where the information carries clear public interest and the source would face genuine jeopardy for supplying it, and the article explains why it was granted.

We do not publish anonymous allegations against identifiable individuals without putting those allegations to the person concerned and reporting their response.

Where our reporting builds on the work of another newsroom, that newsroom is credited by name in the copy and linked. Unattributed aggregation has no place in this publication.

Any person or institution facing significant criticism is offered a meaningful opportunity to respond before publication, with sufficient time and sufficient particulars to answer.

A refusal to comment is reported neutrally as a refusal to comment. A response received after publication is added to the article and flagged as an update.

Reporting, analysis and opinion are visually and editorially distinct. A reader should never have to guess which of the three they are reading.

The Standard uses software in the production of its journalism, including for drafting, summarising and formatting. We disclose this because readers are entitled to know how their news is made.

No article reaches publication without human editorial review. A named editor is accountable for every headline, every figure and every claim on this site.

Machine assistance mitigates nothing. A fabricated detail that survives to publication is an editorial failure and is corrected under section V, on the same terms as any other error.

The Standard corrects promptly, visibly and without defensiveness. We do not silently amend a page and carry on as though the original never existed.

A material error of fact is corrected with a dated note at the foot of the article, stating what was published in error and what the position now is. Typographical fixes and dead link repairs are made without notation.

Requests for correction should go to editor@thenairastandard.com with the article link and the specific disputed claim. They take priority over all other correspondence.

If the correction concerns a substantial part of the story, the note appears at the head of the article rather than the foot, where readers cannot miss it.

Commercial partners exercise no influence over editorial judgement. They do not see articles before publication, they do not receive advance notice of coverage, and they cannot purchase either.

Sponsored material is labelled, presented in a distinct format, and never carries the byline of a Standard reporter.

Journalists disclose to the editor any financial holding, family connection or political affiliation bearing on a story, and recuse themselves where that interest would compromise the reporting or the appearance of it.

Our Spotlight programme operates under these same rules. Partner participation buys placement in a section, never a favourable verdict within it.

Victims of crime and tragedy are named only where public interest requires it and, wherever practicable, with the knowledge of family. Children receive heightened protection as a matter of course.

We report violence where the story demands it and decline to dwell on it for traffic. Gratuitous imagery of the dead and injured is not published.

Ethnicity, religion, region, gender, disability and sexuality appear in our reporting when material to the story and are omitted when they are not. That test is applied evenly to every community in the federation.