Editorial Guidelines

FTC - Editorial Guidelines

These are the editorial guidelines for the Flatten the Curve website authors, editors and translators. The editorial guidelines apply to every piece of content in the website and on social media. The editorial guidelines are based on the following editorial values:

1. We operate in the public interest – reporting about COVID-19 to our audiences and we seek to provide reliable, verified and usable information and use the highest standards to provide information that is useful and accurate.
2. We are impartial, not seeking to reflect the views of any government or institution – so that our output is co-created as a whole. We are independent of outside interests and arrangements that could compromise our editorial integrity. Our editorial standards do not require absolute neutrality on every issue or detachment from fundamental democratic principles.
3. Freedom of expression is not an absolute right – it carries duties and responsibilities and is also subject to legal restrictions and limits. In exercising freedom of expression, we must offer appropriate protection to vulnerable groups and avoid causing unjustifiable offence. We must also respect people’s privacy – not putting private information into the public domain.

Accuracy

1. FTC only reports information that has been validated by Health experts. FTC does not seek to duplicate any existing official health guidelines or instructions.
2. FTC does not suggest people do anything illegal or against national health directives in their respective countries.
3. FTC does not provide any direct medical advice.
4. FTC volunteers adding new material or editing existing one on the website will:
   1. check facts and statistics, identifying important caveats and limitations
   2. validate the authenticity of documentary evidence and digital material
   3. corroborate claims and allegations made by contributors
   4. weigh, interpret and contextualise claims, including statistical claims.
5. FTC always reports information that has a verified source.
6. If a verified source is not available, experts or scientists making claims are asked to corroborate their evidence with data.
7. FTC is reluctant to rely on a single source. If we do rely on a single source, it should be credible, and a named, on-the-record source is always preferable.
8. FTC checks and verifies information, facts and documents, to achieve due accuracy. If we have been unable to verify material, we do not publish that information.

Integrity

1. When outputs include statistics, FTC explains the numbers clearly, puts them into context, weighs, interprets and presents them clearly and attributes them.
2. The statistics provided by FTC must be accurate and verified, with important caveats and limitations explained. We should use a range of evidence to put statistical claims into context and help audiences to judge their magnitude and importance.
3. The reporting of risk can have an impact on the public’s perception of that risk, particularly with health information. FTC avoids worrying the audiences unduly and contextualises its reports to be clear about the likelihood of the risk occurring. This is particularly true in reporting health information that may cause individuals to alter their behaviour in ways that could be harmful.
4. We responsibly consider the emotional impact the information we publish can have, particularly on perceptions of risk.
5. User-generated content like tweets and FB messages raise particular challenges. FTC does not assume that the material is accurate and, depending on how it plans to use it, it should take reasonable steps to seek verification. User-generated content cannot be used as a verified source.
6. FfC takes care over how we use any material that may have been supplied by a member of a lobby group or anyone with a vested interest in the story, rather than a disinterested bystander.
7. FTC is particularly careful about distinguishing facts from rumours, particularly – but by no means exclusively – on social media where misinformation may be deliberate and where error or rumour can spread around the world in minutes, while corrections find it harder to gain traction.
8. Additional scrutiny is applied if material from a social media site or other internet source is being used to corroborate a fact. Material that was not gathered by the authors directly can only be added if it is attributed to a verified source.
9. FTC only uses other material supplied by third parties if it is credible and reliable and has accredited and verified sources. This includes updates reports, numbers and statistics, information and charts.
10. FTC does not knowingly and materially mislead the audiences with its content.

Credibility

1. FTC always identifies sources of information and significant contributors and provides their credentials, so that our audiences can judge their status.
2. FTC does not quote anonymous sources.
3. FTC acknowledges serious factual errors and corrects such mistakes quickly, clearly and appropriately. An effective way of correcting a serious factual error is saying what was wrong as well as putting it right.
4. FTC often reminds readers that information on the outbreak is subject to change. At the start of an outbreak, not everything is known, and you want people to understand that if information changes, it’s not necessarily because people have been hiding information, it’s because people have learned more.
5. FTC avoids speculations on the intentions of the government or local health authorities.
6. FTC does not report any conspiracy theory nor it makes any evaluation over the “ability” of any government to respond to the crisis.