We stand for free, fair and independent journalism. The integrity and objectivity of First Check members constitute the organisation’s principal assets.

We have editorial oversight in place to ensure that our staff members adhere to the highest standards and ensure neutrality in their reporting and fact-checking.

We understand that every team member will have their own political views but there is a mandatory requirement to be objective and independent while writing a fact check story. Each story goes through an editorial and gatekeeping process to ensure that personal biases are weeded out of every story.

The editorial team may deal with any issue, cause, organization, or individual. However, we ensure that the editorial team must not undertake any external activities which could undermine the First Check’s reputation for impartiality.

It is necessary for team members to take permission to take part in external activities from the management. The staff members are expected to declare any active political involvement in the annual assessment form. Our aim remains that our audiences must be able to trust us and be confident that our editorial decisions are not influenced by outside interests, including political or commercial pressures.

To ensure that, our team members are not allowed:

• To engage in activities that constitute lobbying; or any campaign which might otherwise call into question the independence and objectivity of First Check.
• To campaign for any political party, pharma company and or any interest group. Or to get involved in dissemination or sharing of political literature in any form.
• To take part in any protest or take part against a political cause. Or do anything that might cast doubt on our ability to provide unbiased coverage.

Nothing in this is intended to restrict First Check journalists from engaging in these activities; the aim is to ensure that outside interests do not come into conflict with our editorial integrity and impracticality.

Also to ensure fair and independent journalism, we:

• Don’t concentrate on fact-checking on any one side.
• Make sure that we provide details about our sources in a transparent manner except in cases where a source’s personal security could be compromised.
• Ensure that we explain to our readers how we fact-check, still, in case they would like to know more, we can be contacted via the contact us page.
• We seek non-partisan, publicly available information in our fact-checking