Accuracy and verification: the basic discipline
Accuracy is the foundation of the ethics that follow: fairness, independence and source protection. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel describe verification as journalism’s defining discipline. Treat it as a repeatable working method, especially when the pressure to publish becomes strongest.
The essentials
Begin with the apparently small details: names, job titles, figures, dates and places. Check spelling while you are with the person. Confirm that a title is still current. Recalculate a number instead of copying it. These details establish whether the reporting can bear the weight of its larger argument.
Seek independent confirmation for important claims. Several outlets repeating one agency report are still relying on one source. Examine the evidence itself: a document can establish something a recollection cannot; a direct witness differs from someone repeating what they heard. Familiarity or widespread repetition does not turn an assertion into proof.
Attribute systematically. Information you did not observe yourself needs an identifiable origin. Keep track of what each source can actually establish and what remains uncertain. When the evidence is insufficient, do more reporting or hold the claim. Publishing later with sound evidence serves the public better than winning a race with an error.
Take it to the field
Read your article once just for names, dates, places and figures. For every decisive claim, find the evidence and its origin. Several repetitions of the same source do not amount to several independent confirmations.
Your turn
Audit your last published article. Highlight every checkable fact and write its source in the margin. How many important claims rely on only one source? Identify the independent verification each still needs.