Plain Sight News exists to explain world news in plain language. This page sets out how we work: where our information comes from, how we handle mistakes, how we separate reporting from opinion, and how advertising is kept apart from editorial decisions.

We publish these standards so readers can hold us to them. If you believe we have fallen short of anything written here, we want to know.

Where our information comes from

We build our articles from sources that can be checked. In practice that means official statements and documents, court and parliamentary records, established news agencies and newspapers, and reports from organisations such as the United Nations and recognised humanitarian and human rights bodies.

Where a claim is contested, we say who is making it rather than presenting it as settled fact. “The health ministry says” and “it is confirmed that” mean different things, and we try to keep that distinction visible.

We prefer the original source to a report about the original source. Where a figure comes from a specific body, we name that body.

What we do when facts are unclear

Breaking events are often reported before anyone knows what happened. Early casualty figures change. Early explanations turn out to be wrong. Suspects named in the first hours are sometimes not involved at all.

Our approach is to say plainly what is known, what is claimed, and what is not yet established — and to leave the gaps visible rather than filling them with speculation. An article that tells you less but is accurate is more useful than one that guesses.

Corrections

We will make mistakes. When we do, we correct them rather than quietly deleting them.

• Significant factual errors are corrected in the article, with a note explaining what was changed and when.
• Minor fixes — spelling, broken links, formatting — are made without a note.
• If an article is substantially wrong, we say so clearly rather than editing it into a different article.

To report an error, use our Get in Touch page. Tell us the article and what you believe is wrong, and we will look at it.

Reporting, explainers and opinion

We publish three kinds of article, and we try to make it obvious which you are reading.

• Reporting sets out what happened, attributed to sources.
• Explainers provide the background a story assumes you already know — what an institution is, what a term means, why something matters. They aim to inform, not to persuade.
• Opinion argues a position and is labelled as opinion. It reflects the writer, not the newspaper.

Where an issue is genuinely contested, we set out the serious arguments on more than one side. Our aim is to give readers enough to reach their own conclusions, not to tell them what to think.

Reporting on people

Allegations are not verdicts. We distinguish between someone being accused, charged, tried and convicted, because those are different things with different consequences for the person involved.

Anyone facing serious criticism in an article should have a fair opportunity to respond, and we include responses where they are available. Where someone has declined to comment, we say so rather than leaving silence to speak for them.

We take particular care with victims of crime, children, and people who did not choose public life. Being newsworthy is not the same as being fair game.

Violence, tragedy and dignity

We report on war, disasters and violent crime because ignoring them serves nobody. But we do not publish graphic material for its own sake, and we avoid detail that would distress the people affected without adding to a reader’s understanding.

We aim to write about people caught up in terrible events as people, not as statistics or as illustrations of an argument.

Images

We use photographs from public domain archives, Wikimedia Commons, government and United Nations sources, and licensed stock libraries. Photographers and licences are credited.

Where an image is illustrative rather than a photograph of the specific event described, we do not present it as documentation of that event. We do not alter photographs in ways that change what they show.

Advertising and independence

Plain Sight News carries advertising. Advertisers have no influence over what we cover or what we say. No advertiser is shown an article before publication, and no advertiser can have an article removed or changed.

Advertisements are visually marked as advertisements. If we ever publish sponsored or paid content, it will be labelled clearly as such — not disguised as reporting.

Faith, politics and fairness

Our values are rooted in a Christian understanding of human dignity, compassion and justice. We say so openly rather than pretending to come from nowhere.

That does not make this a newspaper for Christians only, and it does not mean religious institutions get an easier ride — we report on wrongdoing within churches as we would anywhere else. We write for readers of any faith or none, and we aim to treat every community we report on with the same fairness we would want for our own.

On contested political questions we are not neutral about facts, but we do not campaign for parties or candidates.

Reader contributions

We welcome articles, tips and letters from readers, and we are especially interested in stories that are not being reported anywhere else. Submissions are reviewed before publication and may be edited for length, clarity and accuracy.

A submission is not published because someone sent it. It is published because we checked it. That check means going to the people and institutions named, examining whatever documentation exists, and putting the substance of any allegation to its subject before publication so they have the opportunity to respond. We do this in every case, including where we find the account entirely credible.

Where a claim cannot be corroborated beyond the word of the person making it, and the subject disputes it, we have two options: publish it as that person’s account, attributed plainly to them, or decline to publish. We do not present contested claims as established fact.

Contributors may ask not to be named, and we honour that, telling them in advance how they will be described. We also tell them plainly that our contact form is not a secure channel, so that anyone for whom identification carries risk can decide accordingly. We read every submission and reply to each one, normally within two weeks, whether or not we take it further.

We do not publish material that is unverifiable, defamatory, or intended to incite hatred against any group.

Published contributions carry the writer’s name and are their own view unless stated otherwise.

Complaints

If you believe an article breaches these standards, contact us through the Get in Touch page, setting out the article and your concern. We will read it, respond, and correct anything we have got wrong.

---

These standards will be reviewed and updated as Plain Sight News grows. Last updated: 30 August 2026.