How does this website decide what is true?

A claim should stand or fall on its evidence, not on whether its conclusion is politically convenient. This site's purpose is to help you inspect that evidence and understand the limits of a conclusion.

Start with the source that can establish the claim

For what a law says, identify the actual legal text and its version. For a parliamentary answer, use the answer rather than a headline describing it. For a statistic, identify the population, reference period, unit and method.

“Official” is a source description, not a guarantee that every interpretation is correct. A ministry release can establish what the ministry reported. It does not automatically prove the success of its policy or explain every conflicting observation.

Independent work can also be a primary source. ADR's analysis of election affidavits is an independent analysis, not an official government or judicial classification. A publisher's own editorial standards establish its stated rules, not independent certification that every article follows them. 1 2

Keep different statements visibly different

A factual claim, an allegation, an inference, an opinion and a hypothetical teaching example need different treatment. A hypothetical is labelled so that it cannot quietly become a reported incident.

The same applies to data. An actual table value, a calculation using that value and a judgment about what it means are separate steps. The source link should make those steps easier to inspect, not merely decorate the page.

Date the evidence

Each article in this content edition carries a research-check date. A report's publication date and reference period are stored separately where established. A document checked today can still describe events from several years ago.

A “checked” label describes work performed for this edition. It is not a guarantee of continuous monitoring or an assertion that no later correction exists. Historical legal compilations are labelled with their actual cutoffs instead of being silently presented as current consolidated law.

Correct the claim, not only the spelling

When better evidence changes a conclusion, the correction should identify the original claim, the supporting record and the substantive change. Related summaries and charts need the same correction.

No anonymous guilt rankings, fabricated incidents or unsupported claims of political motive belong in this process. Where a source cannot establish the claim, the right result is a narrower statement or an explicit gap.

These articles received assistant source checks and calculation checks. They are not described as independently human-reviewed. Readers can use the linked records to examine or challenge the conclusions directly.