A publication carries two different kinds of text, and it owes its readers a clear line between them. One kind tells you what happened. The other tells you what someone thinks about it. We want you always to know which of the two is in front of you.

This matters because the two ask different things of a reader. A news report asks to be checked; an opinion piece asks to be weighed. Checking means asking where a fact comes from; weighing means asking whether a reason is good. When the two are mixed, a reader can do neither properly.

What a news report does

A news report says what happened, where and when, and it says where the information comes from. It names its sources or explains what kind of sources they are, so that readers can judge for themselves how far to trust them. The writer’s own views are kept out of it. What to make of the facts is left to the reader.

Our reporting relies on verified sources. Before we publish a fact, we want to know who stands behind it and whether it can be confirmed. Where something is not yet known, we would rather say so than fill the gap with a guess.

We also make mistakes, as every newsroom does. When we find one, we correct it in the open rather than quietly. A silent correction might protect us, but it would let you down, and a reader who has been let down has no reason to come back.

What an opinion piece does

An opinion piece is labelled as opinion. It carries an argument: a view, the reasons for it and the conclusion the author draws. It may be forceful and one-sided, yet it should still rest on facts, and a reader is free to disagree with it.

This text is itself an opinion piece. It is written in the publication’s own voice and says what we believe a publication ought to do. Judge it as you would any other argument: are the reasons good, and does the conclusion follow from them?

So we suggest reading the two kinds of text in different ways. From a news report, take the facts and look at where they come from. From an opinion piece, take the argument and test it against what you know yourself. Keeping the two apart is our job; making good use of both is up to you.