Who was contacted before publishing an accusation, when, and with what reply: these traces often live scattered across emails and in the memory of the one journalist who handled the story. On the day a complaint arrives, the newsroom searches for them in a hurry. This application keeps these traces as the article is written, not after the fact.
Who the application is for
For a local or specialist newsroom, a pure player, a press agency or a communications department that publishes, and wants to be able to show, on the day of a complaint, what was checked and who was contacted.
What the application does
- Breaks an article down into separate factual assertions, each with its own sensitivity: standard, sensitive, or naming a person.
- Qualifies each source by its nature and its quality, primary, secondary or a stakeholder, with its date of consultation.
- Refuses to publish a sensitive assertion without at least one primary source, and an assertion naming a person without any source at all.
- Tracks the solicitation of the person named — date, means, reply or absence of reply — and requires two independent sources once that solicitation is at stake.
- Allows publishing without having contacted the person named, but only if someone signs that decision by name.
- Logs complaints received after publication, linked to the article and to the exact assertion targeted.
Day to day
- While writing the article, break it down into assertions and assign each one its sensitivity.
- Attach to each assertion its sources, with their nature and their quality.
- For an assertion naming a person, record the solicitation: date, means, and reply as soon as it arrives.
- Attempt to publish: the application refuses while a sensitive or naming assertion lacks its required sources or solicitation, naming the reason.
- If a complaint arrives after publication, log it against the article and the assertion targeted, then mark it handled once a reply has been given.
What the application does not do
- It never says whether an assertion is true or false: it tracks verification diligence, never a verdict.
- It does not verify any assertion itself and consults no outside database: qualifying a source and deciding to publish remain human acts.
- It does not archive any web page itself: the archived address is entered by hand, on the service chosen by the newsroom.
- It is neither a publishing site nor a layout tool: it only produces the internal verification file.
- It does not replace the advice of a lawyer once a formal notice has been received or proceedings have begun.
Free and full editions
The free edition already keeps the assertions and their qualified sources, and refuses to publish a sensitive assertion without a primary source or an assertion naming a person without any source. The full edition installs on top without losing anything, and adds the solicitation of the person named, the requirement of two independent sources, the signed decision to publish without having contacted them, complaints received after publication and the PDF verification file.
Getting started
Get into the habit of breaking each article down into separate assertions as you write, giving them their sensitivity along the way rather than rebuilding the file afterwards.
Going further
To find out whether this application suits your business and how to activate it, compare the plans or write to us.