Editorial standards
How we report, check facts, handle sources and keep news apart from opinion and sponsored work.
- We decide what we cover. Sponsors and advertisers do not.
- We check facts before we publish and correct mistakes openly.
- Sponsored stories are marked as sponsored, and opinion is kept apart from news.
Why these standards
Startup Pakistan reports on startups, business, technology, the economy and markets in Pakistan. These standards describe how we aim to do that accurately and fairly. They guide everything we publish.
Independence
We decide what to cover and how to cover it. Advertisers, sponsors and the companies and people we write about do not.
We do not let anyone outside Startup Pakistan approve a news story before it is published. We may check facts or quotes with the people in a story, but the final word is ours.
Sourcing
We aim to go to the source: the people involved, official documents, company filings and published data. We tell readers where information comes from, unless there is a good reason not to.
When we report on a company filing, such as one made to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, we work from the filing itself, and we do not change or exaggerate what it says.
When a story builds on another outlet’s reporting, we credit that outlet.
Checking facts
Before we publish, we aim to check names, numbers, dates and claims. If we cannot confirm something important, we say so, or we leave it out.
Numbers matter in business news. We aim to say what a figure measures and the period it covers, and to compare like with like.
When a story makes a serious claim about a person or a company, we aim to give them a fair chance to respond, and to reflect their answer.
Quotes
A quote is the speaker’s own words. We may shorten a quote, but we do not change its meaning or put words in anyone’s mouth. When we translate a quote, for example from Urdu, we aim to keep its meaning faithfully.
Unnamed sources
We name our sources whenever we can. We use unnamed sources sparingly: only when the information matters to readers, cannot be had on the record and comes from someone in a position to know.
When we do, we know who the source is, and we aim to explain why they are not named.
Conflicts of interest
If someone writing for us has a financial or close personal link to a company or person in a story, we aim to give the story to someone else, or to tell readers about the link.
We do not accept payment for news coverage. Paid content is sponsored content, and it is marked as such.
Corrections
When we get something wrong, we correct it openly: we fix the story and add a note that says what changed. Our Corrections policy explains how, and how to tell us about a mistake.
Sponsored content
Sponsored stories are paid for by a partner and marked as sponsored. Sponsors have no say over our news coverage. Our Sponsored content policy has the details.
Opinion and news
News stories report what happened, who said what and why it matters. Opinion pieces and columns share a point of view. We aim to make it clear when a piece is opinion, and the views in it belong to its writer.
Holding us to it
If you think we have fallen short of these standards, tell us through the Contact page.