Editorial Standards and Policy

1Mission and mandate

Afghanistan Christian Watch (ACW) is an independent news agency and human rights monitor. Its mission is accurate, documented reporting on freedom of religion or belief and on the rights of Afghan Christians, religious minorities and women.

ACW does two things side by side: news reporting, gathering and publishing news through its own team and local sources; and monitoring, the systematic recording and documentation of human rights violations. Both follow this document and recognised international standards.

• Independence: editorial decisions rest with the ACW editorial board alone, and our team gathers its own news from local sources.
• Accuracy: nothing is published before it is verified, and accuracy comes before speed.
• Fairness: every party is given the chance to respond, and news is kept separate from opinion.
• Do no harm: the safety of sources and people at risk comes before any story.
• Accountability: every claim has a clear source, and every error is corrected openly.

2Legal basis and reference standards

ACW's work rests on international human rights law and on professional standards for journalism and monitoring:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Articles 18 and 19Freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression.
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Articles 18, 19 and 27Freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression and the rights of minorities. Afghanistan has been a party since 1983.
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)The basis for ACW's reporting on the rights of women and girls. Afghanistan has been a party since 2003.
• IFJ Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists (2019)The ethical standard for gathering and publishing news.
• OHCHR Manual on Human Rights MonitoringThe standard for recording, corroborating and reporting human rights violations.
• Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations (UN Human Rights and UC Berkeley)The standard for verifying and preserving images, video and digital evidence.

Wherever this document and these standards differ, the rule that gives people greater protection applies.

3Editorial independence

• Decisions on selecting, writing and publishing every story rest with the ACW editorial board alone.
• Donors, partners, churches and partner organisations play no part in editorial decisions and do not see stories before publication.
• ACW publishes no paid or commissioned content and is not affiliated with any party, political faction or armed group.
• Any team member with a personal interest in a story declares it to the editorial board and steps away from that story.
• Technical tools, including artificial intelligence, are used only to assist with research, translation and editing. Every text is reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication.

4Editorial structure and responsibility

Every story passes through these levels of responsibility before publication:

1. Local contributors and sourcesBring information and first reports to the ACW team from inside Afghanistan and from the Afghan community abroad.
2. Section editorReviews the report, assesses the source's reliability and prepares the draft.
3. Editorial boardCarries out the final verification, assigns the credibility label and decides on publication.
4. Second reviewSensitive stories, including arrests, threats to life and anything sent as a breaking alert, are also checked by a second team member before publication.

5Newsgathering and sources

• ACW's primary source is its own team and local sources. Reports by the UN and UNAMA, religious freedom monitors and reputable media are also reviewed and cited by name.
• Each local source's reliability is assessed before working with them and in every report: direct access to the event, track record of accuracy and possible motives.
• Eyewitness accounts are recorded separately from hearsay, and the story makes clear which is which.
• An anonymous source is accepted only when naming them would endanger their life or safety. The source's identity is known to the editorial board, and the story explains why they are not named.
• ACW does not pay sources for information or interviews.

6Verification

Every story goes through these steps before publication:

1. Review of local reportsReports from local sources are reviewed by the editorial board and, wherever possible, checked against other sources and evidence.
2. Reading the primary sourceWe open the primary source ourselves (a UN report, an organisation's statement, a court document) and never rely on summaries.
3. Counting independent sourcesOnly an outlet that did its own reporting counts as an independent source. Republications, translations or rewrites of one report count as one source.
4. Checking each figure separatelyEvery number and serious claim (deaths, arrests, sentences, decrees, quotes) is checked separately against the primary source.
5. Verifying images and videoThe origin, location and date of every image and video are checked with reverse image search and file data, following the Berkeley Protocol.
6. Checking datesPublication and event dates are recorded separately. Dari and Pashto pages use the Solar Hijri calendar with Afghan month names, with the Gregorian date in brackets.

7Credibility labels

Every story carries one of three labels, and the label decides how it is published:

8Monitoring and documentation of violations

ACW's monitoring unit records violations of freedom of religion or belief and of the rights of women and minorities, following UN human rights monitoring methodology:

• Each case is recorded in its own file with the date, province, type of violation, sources and level of verification.
• A case is counted as "documented" only when verified information gives "reasonable grounds to believe" it occurred, the standard used by UN human rights bodies.
• Each case is corroborated by at least two independent sources, or by one direct source together with documentary evidence.
• Alleged and unverified cases are kept apart from documented cases and are not counted in published figures.
• Every figure ACW publishes states the period covered and the counting method.
• Case files are kept encrypted with restricted access, and digital evidence is preserved with the time and source of receipt.

9Attribution, quotation and language

• Every claim is attributed to its source: "according to …", "… said in a statement".
• Exact quotes appear in quotation marks. Judgemental adjectives appear only inside attributed quotes.
• Taliban statements are always attributed to them by name, and where an independent source contradicts them, this is stated alongside.
• ACW refers to the current government of Afghanistan as the "Taliban caretaker government". Terms such as "Islamic Emirate" and "apostate" appear only inside quotes.
• Christians imprisoned for their faith are never called "accused" or "criminals"; the official charge is quoted once, in quotation marks.

10Protection of people and information security

The principle of "do no harm" governs all of ACW's work. Christians inside Afghanistan face serious danger. Therefore:

• The identity of ACW's local sources and contributors is protected and never published.
• Informed consent: before an interview or before publishing a person's words, they are told how their words will be used and what the possible risks are, and their consent is obtained.
• Names, photos, addresses, villages or districts, exact occupations and family names of private Christians, converts and victims are never published; at most the province is named.
• Faces of people inside Afghanistan who have not consented are blurred, and hidden image data (such as location) is removed before publication.
• No detail that could reveal escape routes or people's contacts is published.
• Communication with sources takes place over secure, encrypted channels.
• Where the risk a story poses to people outweighs its benefit, it is not published or its sensitive details are removed.
• Exception: prisoners whose cases are public in court and whose lawyers campaign publicly using their names may be named. Public figures and organisations are named.

11Fairness and right of reply

• Before publishing a serious allegation against a known person or organisation, we seek their response.
• We seek the response of the Taliban or the authority concerned, and if there is none, the story says so.
• A response received after publication is added to the same story.
• News is kept separate from analysis and opinion, and any analysis is clearly labelled.

12Corrections, complaints and review

• Errors are corrected in the same story on the same page; a new version of the story is not published.
• Significant corrections are noted at the end of the story with a "Correction" note and the date of correction.
• This document is reviewed once a year and whenever ACW's working methods change.

If you see an error in an ACW report or wish to make a complaint, please tell the editorial board through our secure contact page.