When we get it wrong

Reporting an error

Write to editor@tbb.news with:

• a link to the story;
• the sentence you believe is wrong, quoted;
• what the correct fact is, and how you know.

You do not need to be the subject of the story, you do not need to give a reason for asking, and you do not need an account. Anyone can report an error.

What we do

1. We acknowledge within two working days. Not a resolution — an acknowledgement from a person, so you know it has not vanished.
2. We check it ourselves. Against the original notes, recording or document, not against what we remember writing.
3. We tell you the outcome, including when we conclude the story was right. If we disagree with you, we explain why rather than going quiet.

How corrections appear

Where a fact is wrong, we fix the text and append a dated correction note at the foot of the story saying what it previously said. We do not silently edit a published article to make an error disappear — an unmarked change is a second error on top of the first.

The distinction we work to:

• Correction — a fact was wrong. The text is fixed and the note records what changed.
• Clarification — a fact was accurate but capable of leaving a wrong impression. The wording is sharpened and the note explains.
• Update — new information has emerged since publication. The story is added to and the note is dated. The original reporting stands.

Typographical fixes that change no meaning are made without a note.

Serious errors

Where an error goes to the substance of a story — the central allegation, the principal figure, the identity of a person — the correction is not buried at the foot of the piece. It runs at the top, and we say plainly that the story was wrong.

Unpublishing

We do not remove published stories on request, including from people who feature in them. The public record is not editable by its subjects. There are narrow exceptions: a legal order, a genuine and present risk to someone’s safety, or an article so wrong it cannot be repaired by correction — in which case we replace it with a note explaining that it was withdrawn and why.

If we don’t resolve it

If you have written to us and are not satisfied with the outcome, say so in the same thread and ask for it to be escalated to the editor. If it still is not resolved, write to contact@tbb.news with “escalation” in the subject line.

Our broader commitments on sourcing, verification and disclosure are in our editorial standards.