Corrections Policy
Correction, clarification, update
Three different things, and we say which one we are doing. A correction fixes something we got factually wrong: a wrong name, a wrong figure, a quote attributed to the wrong person. A clarification means the facts were right and the writing still let a reader walk away with something untrue, usually through a missing qualifier or a headline that outran the story. An update adds new information to a story that was accurate when it published, which on a developing story can happen many times in a day.
The labels are not cosmetic. Calling a correction an update is the oldest move on a news website, and we do not use it. If the first version was wrong, the note uses that word.
The note goes on the story, and the story stays put
Corrections are made on the original article at the original address. The note is dated, says what was wrong and what the fact is, and does not need hunting for: at the top where the error was material, at the foot where it was small. We do not quietly edit a sentence and let the page stand as though it had always read that way.
Two things get fixed without a note: a typing slip that changes no meaning, and formatting, tags, or a broken link. Everything above that line carries a note. Where the error was in the headline rather than the body, the note says so, because the headline is the part that travelled.
Developing stories, and what changes when the facts do
Breaking news is the hardest case, because a story can be accurate at nine and overtaken by ten. When we add or revise material on a running story, we timestamp the change and, where a figure or a claim we reported earlier turns out to have been wrong rather than merely superseded, we mark it as a correction, not fold it silently into an update. A reader who saw the earlier version deserves to know it changed and why.
Early in an event we also flag what is confirmed, what is only reported elsewhere, and what remains unknown, so that a later change does not come as a reversal out of nowhere. This is slower than repeating whatever is trending, and it is the main reason we would rather be right late than wrong early.
What jumps the queue
Errors that could cause harm, a wrong safety instruction, a wrong medical figure, a wrong name attached to an accusation, are handled the moment we can confirm the right version, ahead of everything else on the desk. Those are the ones people act on or are damaged by. A wrong number that stays up is not a small untidiness, it is a reader misled.
Next come errors that damage a person or an organisation: a wrong figure about a company, a misquotation, a wrong account of what somebody said. Those are fixed the same working day, and where we can, the person affected is told the note is up rather than left to find it. Ordinary spelling, date, and arithmetic errors are done in the normal run of the day.
Telling us we got it wrong, and what you hear back
Write to support@rtdjournal.com with CORRECTION at the front of the subject line. Give us the link, the sentence you are disputing, what you believe the fact is, and where that comes from if you have it. You do not need to be polite or explain who you are. The most useful message is the flattest: this line says X, the document says Y, here is the document.
You get an answer either way. If we change the story we tell you what the note says. If we do not, we tell you why, and sometimes the reason is that the dispute is about framing rather than fact. Harmful errors are settled fast. Everything else we aim to close the same working day and, at the outside, within two.
Chasing the error past our own page
A wrong fact does not stay on the page where it was born. When we correct something that has already travelled, the social post carrying it is corrected or taken down with an explanation rather than left up with the old version. A newsletter that carried the error runs the correction in the next edition. Where a story has been syndicated, we send the corrected copy and ask for the update, and since we cannot compel anybody we say what we asked for and what is out of our hands.
Then there is the forwarded screenshot, which is beyond reach entirely. A cropped image of a wrong headline can circulate for years, and no correction catches up with it. That is the honest reason this newsroom will not publish an unverified figure quickly. The correction is ours to make. The forward is nobody’s to recall.
We do not delete stories
Articles get corrected and updated, not removed. The address stays live, because deleting a page is a tidy way to lose an error along with the evidence of having made it. Requests to unpublish accurate coverage are refused, including from advertisers, whose standing on this is set out on our advertise page.
The exceptions are narrow: a binding legal order, a real risk to someone’s safety, most often a source or a person who should never have been identifiable, or material published in error, such as a draft. Where a page comes down for one of those reasons, a short note stays at the same address saying the story was removed and giving the category of reason.
Who signs off
Corrections are owned by a senior editor, not by the reporter who made the mistake, because nobody is the best judge of their own error. Significant corrections are logged, and we go back through the log when the same kind of error appears twice, because a repeated mistake is a process problem rather than one careless afternoon. How claims are tested before they ever reach this stage is in our fact-checking policy, and the standards behind the work are in our editorial standards. If you have found an error, do not wait to see whether someone else reports it. Send the link and the sentence to support@rtdjournal.com.
Last updated: August 2026
