The rules this desk works to
Meridian is assembled by software under editorial rules. The rules are published here so a reader can hold the site to them.
Sourcing
- Only material a newsroom has published in its own public feed is read. No page is scraped and no article body is fetched.
- Every brief names its source and links to it. The name comes from the source record, not from the summarizing step, so it cannot drift.
- Where several newsrooms report the same event, the item carries one brief and credits each of them.
- The current source list is published in full on the sources page and changes are made in public, in the repository history.
Writing
- Briefs are written from the headline and summary a newsroom published. No other material is consulted.
- No number, name, date, place, quotation or causal claim is added that the source did not report.
- Reused phrasing is rejected automatically: any run of nine consecutive words shared with the source stops the item publishing.
- Uncertainty is attributed in the text — "the ministry said", "according to the operator" — rather than stated flatly.
What is held back
Items touching casualty figures, active conflict, criminal allegations against named people, health claims or market-moving numbers are flagged and held out of publication until a person reviews them. Thin source material produces a headline and a link rather than a summary. Both are deliberate: an empty space is better than a confident error.
Corrections
Mistakes are corrected on the page where they appeared, with a note saying what changed and when. Nothing is quietly deleted. The correction policy, and how to report an error, are on the corrections page.
Independence
No advertiser, sponsor or commercial partner sees an item before publication or influences which stories appear. Where this site carries advertising, it is labelled as advertising. Where a link earns money, that is disclosed on the page carrying it.