Editorial policy

This policy explains how Fica News chooses, checks and publishes stories. We follow the Media Council of Kenya's Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism.

Accuracy first

• Every number, name, title, date and place must be supported by a reliable source, word for word. What we can't confirm, we don't publish — we don't keep it in with “reportedly” or “may”.
• We prefer primary sources: government departments, courts, the central bank, company filings, and the organisations involved. When we rely on other media, we say so.
• The English and Chinese versions of a story must state the same facts and figures; we compare the figures in both versions line by line.
• The main sources for each story are listed at its end, so readers can check them.

Our process and AI

Fica News is an AI-assisted newsroom. This is who does what:

1. What AI does: research, first drafts in English and Chinese, and translation; and three review stages run by AI — fact-checking, the copy desk and the editor-in-chief — which check every number, name, title and date against its source, cut anything that can't be confirmed, record the source text for each fact, and review language, legal risk and fairness of wording.
2. What people do: a human editor reviews and edits every story before it is published. AI never publishes anything on its own. Current editor: Du Fengyan.
3. What AI never does: interview people, invent quotes, or create or alter news photographs (pictures are real, credited photographs).

Every story drafted with AI says so at its end. Stories bylined “Fica News Desk” are produced and published under this process.

Fairness

• We keep fact and opinion apart; analysis is labelled as such, and opinions are attributed.
• When we report allegations or disputes, we name the source and, wherever possible, give those involved a chance to respond.
• We take no side in Kenyan party politics, and we report China–Africa relations factually and constructively, without avoiding facts.
• We take particular care with ethnicity, religion, elections, protests and security, and never sensationalise or incite.

Protecting sources and people

• We protect the identity of anonymous sources; reader tips are seen only by the newsroom.
• We do not identify children in sensitive stories or survivors of sexual violence.
• Until a court has ruled, we call people suspects or accused, not criminals.

Pictures

We use our own photographs, licensed images, or images whose licence allows use (such as Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash and Pexels), with credit. Posters and publicity images in the events guide come from organisers' or ticketing sites' public pages and are credited.

Independence

We don't accept payment for coverage, and advertisers or partners have no say over what we report. If we publish sponsored or partner content in future, it will be clearly labelled and kept apart from our journalism.

Reader comments

Comments appear only after an editor has approved them. Personal attacks, hate speech, advertising and off-topic posts are not published.

Mistakes

See our corrections policy.