Editorial Standards and Independence
Our position
Boho News is anti-corruption, anti-authoritarian, anti-oligarchy, anti-propaganda, anti-exploitation, and anti-media capture.
These commitments guide what we investigate. They do not excuse weak evidence, selective quotation, factual distortion, partisan coordination, or predetermined conclusions.
Our methods must remain fair even when our conclusions are forceful.
Evidence before allegiance
We follow evidence rather than party identity, ideology, reputation, access, donor preference, audience expectation, or institutional prestige.
We do not alter a factual conclusion because it helps or harms a favored group.
Nonpartisanship does not require equal criticism, artificial balance, or neutral language about conduct the evidence establishes as false, corrupt, discriminatory, abusive, or unlawful.
Source hierarchy
We generally prefer:
- original documents, recordings, datasets, and direct observations;
- official records and authenticated statements;
- multiple independent firsthand accounts;
- established organizations with direct reporting;
- specialist publications with relevant expertise;
- advocacy organizations and interested parties;
- social posts and other unverified public claims.
An official statement proves that an official made the statement. It does not automatically prove the statement is true.
Attribution and legal status
We preserve important distinctions.
An arrest is not proof of guilt. A charge is an allegation. A lawsuit contains claims. A settlement is not necessarily an admission. A projection is not a certified result. A leak is not automatically authentic or complete.
We attribute claims to the people and institutions making them.
Original reporting and other news organizations
Other publications may alert us to a story, identify a source, or report an important exclusive.
When another newsroom first reports a material fact, we credit and link to it.
We do not copy articles, disguise copying through light paraphrase, spin text through automation, or republish protected images without a lawful basis.
We seek to add value through primary records, independent confirmation, data, local consequences, timelines, comparison, legal or financial analysis, public tools, or continued reporting.
Right of response
Before publishing serious allegations about an identifiable person or organization, we ordinarily seek a response when time and circumstances permit.
We describe the substance of the allegation and provide a reasonable deadline.
A refusal or failure to respond does not prevent publication when the evidence and public interest support it. We disclose whether a response was requested and received when relevant.
Sources do not receive authority over final wording, headlines, timing, framing, or conclusions.
Named and anonymous sources
Named sources are preferred.
Anonymous sourcing may be used when the information is important, the source has direct knowledge, identification could create serious retaliation or danger, and the newsroom knows the source’s identity.
We corroborate anonymous claims whenever practical and describe the source as specifically as safety permits.
Only an authorized editor may promise confidentiality. Ordinary email does not create a confidential-source relationship.
Accuracy and uncertainty
We publish what the evidence supports and state uncertainty directly.
Phrases such as these are not signs of weakness:
- Boho News has not independently verified this claim.
- The available record does not establish the cause.
- Officials have not explained the discrepancy.
- The evidence currently supports this conclusion.
- The issue remains disputed.
Certainty must be earned.
Publication times and public history
The displayed publication time is the actual time the article first became publicly accessible on the canonical Boho News production site.
Approval, compilation, commit, preview, and scheduled times are not publication times.
Substantive updates receive an actual update time and a plain-language description of what changed. Minor typographical or formatting edits may be made silently when they do not alter meaning.
We do not refresh dates to make old reporting appear new.
See our Corrections and Updates Policy for the full standard.
Corrections
We correct material errors promptly and visibly.
A correction states what was wrong, gives the correct information, and records when the correction became public.
We do not silently rewrite material errors. We do not punish people for submitting good-faith correction requests.
Article labels
We distinguish among news, breaking news, developing stories, live coverage, explainers, investigations, analysis, fact checks, opinion, editorials, reviews, sponsored content, and licensed or wire content.
Analysis may draw conclusions from evidence. Opinion may argue a position. Neither may invent facts or misrepresent opposing views.
Elections and political activity
Boho News does not coordinate editorial coverage with campaigns, parties, political committees, or candidates.
The institutional newsroom does not use coverage to elect or defeat a candidate.
We may investigate, criticize, fact-check, and analyze candidates. Election timing does not create immunity from legitimate reporting.
Poll coverage should identify the sponsor, field dates, population, sample size, method, margin of error, wording, weighting, and limitations when available.
Unofficial returns, projections, canvasses, recounts, audits, and certified results are labeled distinctly.
Crime, courts, and public safety
We distinguish allegations from findings and avoid language that presumes guilt.
We consider the power of the institution and the vulnerability of the person involved. Private individuals generally receive more privacy protection than public officials and institutions exercising substantial authority.
We exercise additional care with minors, sexual-violence survivors, domestic-violence survivors, medical information, grieving families, undocumented people, people experiencing homelessness, and people exposed to retaliation.
We do not publish addresses, sensitive identifiers, or information likely to facilitate harm without an extraordinary public-interest justification.
Images, audio, video, and documents
Every production asset requires a documented rights basis and accurate context.
We use real photographs, authentic recordings, official documents, original data graphics, licensed media, public-domain material, authorized embeds, or legally reviewed fair use.
We do not publish AI-generated documentary images or synthetic depictions of real news events.
File and archival images are labeled when their date or context could be misunderstood. Cropping and ordinary tonal correction must not change documentary meaning.
Graphic material is used only when its public value outweighs the risk of exploitation, trauma, or harm.
Artificial intelligence and automation
Automation may monitor feeds, retrieve records, compare documents, identify changes, organize evidence, produce tables, and help prepare drafts.
A human editor is responsible for publication.
AI may not fabricate quotations, sources, facts, documents, photographs, video, audio, credentials, legal citations, or firsthand reporting.
Sensitive allegations, deaths, serious injuries, sexual misconduct, minors, anonymous sources, hacked material, election projections, and severe reputational claims require human review.
Data and charts
We identify the dataset, date, unit, population, method, limitations, and transformations necessary to understand a chart or calculation.
A chart is not decoration. It is a factual claim in visual form and must be reviewable.
We correct data graphics when the underlying data, calculation, scale, labeling, or interpretation is wrong.
Conflicts of interest
Editors, reporters, directors, officers, and contributors must disclose material financial, employment, family, political, consulting, litigation, gift, travel, and personal conflicts.
Conflicts may require disclosure, additional review, reassignment, recusal, divestment, or rejection of the work.
Personnel retain personal political rights, but personal activity may not be represented as the newsroom’s institutional position.
Funding and donors
Donors, advertisers, sponsors, members, subscribers, and partners do not control story selection, conclusions, headlines, corrections, publication timing, sources, or personnel decisions involving coverage.
Material financial relationships relevant to a story are disclosed.
Sponsored or advertising content must be unmistakably labeled. Boho News will not accept payment conditioned on favorable coverage, suppressed reporting, electoral support, false claims, concealed conflicts, or disclosure of confidential sources.
Working people and concentrated power
Boho News gives sustained attention to labor, wages, housing, healthcare, education, debt, safety, discrimination, public services, and the material consequences of policy.
We scrutinize institutions in proportion to the power they exercise.
This orientation does not allow us to distort facts for a preferred outcome. It requires us to ask questions that access-dependent and ownership-concentrated media often neglect.
Media accountability
Media organizations are subjects of reporting, not neutral scenery.
We may investigate ownership, consolidation, labor conditions, access arrangements, conflicts, advertising pressure, political influence, misinformation, and failures of correction or transparency.
Boho News applies the same standards to itself.
Removal and archives
Accurate historical reporting ordinarily remains available.
Removal is exceptional and may be justified by law, immediate safety, severe privacy harm, unsupported central claims, copyright violation, security compromise, or ethical necessity.
Embarrassment, political pressure, donor discomfort, or a later change in public sentiment is not ordinarily enough.
When circumstances change, we prefer updates and annotations over erasure.
Complaints and review
Correction requests should be sent to corrections@bohonews.com.
General editorial complaints may be sent to contact@bohonews.com.
Include the article URL, the exact disputed statement, the evidence supporting the request, and a way to contact you. Status, wealth, influence, popularity, and legal aggression do not determine whether a correction is warranted.