Editorial Standards & Ethics
Our commitment to accuracy, transparency, and fairness in every investigation we publish.
Code of Ethics
AFNPT's editorial work is governed by five core principles:
Accuracy Above All
Every factual claim is sourced to a publicly available government record — IRS filings, DOJ FARA registrations, state corporate databases, or published court documents. We do not publish speculation, rumor, or unverified information. When we cannot verify a claim, we do not publish it.
Transparency of Method
We show our work. Every investigation includes a methodology section explaining what records we examined, how we obtained them, and what analytical methods we applied. Readers can follow our reasoning and verify our conclusions independently.
Fairness
We seek comment from every individual and organization portrayed negatively in our investigations before publication. We accurately represent responses received and note when no response was provided. We do not fabricate, plagiarize, or misrepresent.
Independence
Editorial decisions are made solely by AFNPT's editorial staff. No donor, board member, or external party has pre-publication review rights or the ability to direct, influence, or suppress our investigations. We will never promise editorial outcomes in exchange for funding.
Accountability
When we make mistakes, we correct them promptly, prominently, and transparently. Our corrections policy is published below. We welcome feedback and treat it seriously.
Content Type Labels
Following best practices from the Trust Project (used by Google, Facebook, and Bing to identify quality journalism), all AFNPT content is labeled by type:
Original reporting based on documented public records with full source citations
Reporter-driven interpretation with explicit labeling and full disclosure of underlying facts
Educational content about nonprofit law, FARA mechanics, or IRS filing interpretation
Statistical or data-driven findings derived from public records analysis
How We Frame Findings
Protected Educational Analysis (How We Write)
States facts, cites source, draws reasonable conclusion. Protected under Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990) and the fair report privilege.
Unprotected Framing (What We Avoid)
Conclusory statements implying undisclosed facts. These are potentially actionable regardless of "in our opinion" qualifiers.
Corrections Policy
AFNPT is committed to correcting errors promptly and transparently. When we identify an error or receive a credible correction request:
- Minor factual corrections (dates, dollar amounts, titles) are corrected in the text with a correction notice appended at the top of the article, stating the date, the original error, and the corrected information.
- Major corrections involving core claims or conclusions include a detailed editor's note explaining what was wrong and how the error occurred.
- Retractions of articles with fundamental errors that cannot be corrected include a prominent retraction notice with a full explanation.
- All corrections are logged on our Corrections page (coming soon) with links to the corrected articles.
- Social media posts containing incorrect information are corrected or deleted with a follow-up correction post.
To request a correction, email corrections@afnpt.org with the specific error and supporting documentation.
Conflict of Interest Policy
In accordance with IRS requirements for 501(c)(3) organizations and INN membership standards:
- Board members and editorial staff must disclose all potential conflicts of interest annually
- No person with a conflict may participate in decisions related to that conflict
- If a reporting subject is a donor to AFNPT, this is disclosed in the article
- Editorial staff may not hold securities in industries or organizations they cover
- All donors contributing $5,000 or more are publicly disclosed (per INN standards)
- Anonymous donations are limited to 15% or less of annual revenue
Source Verification Standards
- All financial data is verified against official IRS Form 990 filings, accessed via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API or direct IRS downloads
- FARA data is sourced directly from efile.fara.gov, the DOJ's official FARA database
- State corporate filings are sourced from official Secretary of State databases
- All primary source documents are linked in the investigation and available for independent verification
- Where possible, we use API data (structured, machine-readable) rather than manual PDF extraction to minimize transcription errors