Editorial policy

Archived articles stay exactly as they were published, minus navigation clutter and ads. If a 2018 piece said "Minister X announced Y," that sentence remains, even if the minister left office or the program stalled. The archive is a record, not a living document.

New guides are different. They step back from daily news cycles and explain systems, trace recurring problems, or compare approaches. A guide might describe how district health budgets work, why road contracts stall, or what happens when a mining license expires. These pieces do not invent events or claim scoops.

We write for clarity first. Jargon gets translated. Acronyms get spelled out the first time. If a concept requires three sentences to explain properly, we use three sentences. Readers outside Freetown should not need a glossary or a degree in public administration to follow the thread.

Usefulness beats novelty. A well-organized explainer that saves someone an hour of confused Googling is more valuable than a hot take that evaporates by next week. We would rather publish fewer pieces that people return to than chase traffic with material that does not hold up.

Topical consistency matters. Every article should feel like it belongs in the same publication. A piece about education funding and a piece about port delays may cover different subjects, but the tone, the level of detail, and the respect for the reader's time should be identical.

We do not do clickbait. No "you won't believe" headlines, no listicles padded to hit a number, no vague promises that the text does not deliver. The title tells you what the article contains. The first paragraph delivers on that promise.

Sources are named when we have them, omitted when we do not. We will not write "experts say" or "reports suggest" to dress up a general claim. If a fact comes from a ministry document, we say so. If it comes from lived experience in a dozen communities, we say that instead.

Corrections happen on the page when they matter. A misspelled name gets fixed quietly. A wrong date or a misattributed quote gets a note at the top or bottom explaining what changed and when. We do not silently edit our way out of mistakes.