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Editorial policy

How we choose, verify and correct our stories.

This policy explains how Tribune Newsline selects, reports, verifies and corrects its stories. It applies to everything published on this site, in every section.

Story selection

We start from a question a reader in Punjab or Chandigarh would actually ask, then work outwards: what is the mechanism behind it, which document defines it, and who is affected. A topic qualifies when we can explain it clearly and verify the parts that matter.

Sourcing standards

• Primary documents first — gazette notifications, official orders, budgets, published data, court records.
• Named sources — officials and experts are quoted with their role. Anonymous sourcing is used only where a source would face a concrete risk, and the reason is explained to readers.
• Two-source rule for contested facts — if a claim is disputed, we need independent confirmation before publishing it as fact.
• No composite or reconstructed quotes — quotations are reproduced as spoken, with edits marked.

Numbers and claims

Figures are used only when the source is identifiable and the year is stated. When a number is an estimate, we say so in the sentence, not in a footnote. We do not publish projections presented as results.

Use of language

We write in plain English and avoid loaded framing. Legal terms are explained once, then used precisely. Where a term has an official definition — "notified area", "master plan", "minimum support price" — we quote the definition rather than paraphrase it loosely.

Corrections

Errors are corrected in the text and, where the change alters meaning, noted at the end of the article. The process for reporting an error is on the corrections page.

Independence and conflicts

Review

This policy is reviewed when our workflow changes. It is a public description of practice, not a marketing document: if we fail to follow it, that is a correction matter and readers can hold us to it.