Principles and Ethics

Tahaqaq adheres to universally recognized journalistic ethics, in addition to the standards set by the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN) and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). It also follows all standards imposed by its specialized field of information verification and media literacy, assuming the responsibilities that come with this role.

General Journalistic Principles:

Integrity:

Tahaqaq commits to not manipulating the truth of information and news, avoiding distortion or misrepresentation, and ensuring complete honesty in handling information and news.

Credibility:

Tahaqaq team maintains objectivity in monitoring information and/or news regarding its content, nature, source, and background. It upholds impartiality in investigating, verifying, writing, and publishing information and/or news, avoiding personal, political, sectarian, or tribal bias. Verification is conducted neutrally, avoiding personal opinions and diverse inclinations of the observatory’s journalists and staff, allowing the audience the opportunity for evaluation and ensuring the free flow of information.

Transparency:

The Palestinian observatory “Tahaqaq” adheres to the principle of transparency in the following ways:

– Transparency in monitoring content and its sources.

– Transparency in the content verification process, clearly explaining it to the audience.

– Transparency in disclosing the methodology, openly available on its platforms.

– Transparency in dealing with sources related to the fact-checking process.

– Transparency in addressing audience opinions and feedback on the fact-checking articles and various activities, both positive and negative, and answering their inquiries.

– Transparency in disclosing financial sources.

– Transparency in revealing the names of the team members and volunteers to the public.

Independence:

Tahaqaq is committed to full independence from any official, partisan, or private entity. Partnerships and collaborations with media, community institutions, and specialized organizations do not affect the work, integrity, transparency, or objectivity of the observatory.

Balance and Moderation:

Tahaqaq team commits to monitoring and fact-checking all types of content using a clear, announced methodology and specific professional standards, applied uniformly across all fact-checking processes, without bias or taking personal, political, religious, social, or ethical stances on the fact-checking process.

Respect for the Law:

Tahaqaq interacts with laws related to freedom of expression, media, and publication, committing to them and complying with the judiciary, provided this does not impose unjustified restrictions affecting the observatory’s work and journalistic principles. The observatory believes in international standards guaranteeing freedom of the press, expression, and opinion.

Respect for Privacy and Human Dignity:

In its publishing and fact-checking processes, the fact-checking articles individuals’ privacy and human dignity, advocating for these values through its media literacy responsibilities and adherence to best practices.

Women’s Issues:

Tahaqaq is committed to countering misinformation based on gender, addressing women’s and gender issues within the framework of the law, journalistic principles, and conventions on eliminating all forms of discrimination against women.

Children’s Issues:

Tahaqaq handles children’s issues in accordance with the law, journalistic principles, and international agreements on children’s rights outlined in international conventions.