Panos South Asia (PSA) believes in the need to strengthen accountability in politics and journalism in Nepal and across South Asia as an effective way to consolidate democracy.

It is important that public figures be held accountable for what they say and claim. Media, which has such an important role in holding the public figures to account, also displays bias. In some extreme cases, media has misrepresented facts.

Fact-checkers have to be absolutely impartial and non-partisan. So our fact-checkers cannot be members of political parties and political party-affiliated bodies or professional unions. All care must be taken to avoid being seen as prejudiced, biased or carrying an agenda to defame or harm or discriminate against a person or organization.

Fact-checking of statements of public figures and producing investigative stories on topics of public interest are sensitive subjects. Therefore, utmost care should be taken to carry out the task of checking facts and investigation in highest professional standards.

The following is a list of codes. This is updated from time to time and fact-checking team informed about it immediately.

Code of Conduct for Fact-checkers

The following code of conduct must be adhered to at all times by the fact-checking team:

1. Undertake fact-checking of statement and claims of public figures* in a fair and objective manner, without fear or favor.
2. Should not have and demonstrate any kind of bias in fact-checking work.
3. Should not convey any kind of bias or prejudice in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other such platforms. This is really important to bear in mind.
4. Comments of political or ideological in nature on public platform should be avoided.
5. Should desist from any kind of hate speech or racial remarks.
6. Should not be a full-time employee of any media or other organizations.
7. Be open to suggestions from readers or story ideas suggested by them.
8. Accept any criticism or critique of the published pieces and immediately take steps to see if any corrective measures are required. If so, those measures should be taken.
9. Try not to make a mistake. However, if a mistake has been detected by the team or pointed out by readers, that mistake should be acknowledged and corrections made. Under no circumstances, the posted piece can be deleted.

*Public figures include the President, Prime Minister, Ministers, Justices of Supreme and Appellate court (the two tops courts), Bureaucrats, Diplomats, Businessmen/women, Celebrities (like movie stars, singers, musicians, and so on)

We believe that it is our responsibility to make corrections in case of factual error(s) in a fact-check report.

In case of a major mistake(s) especially those that require us to change the conclusion of our fact check report, we will clearly add the term “Correction” in the headline and update the report.

Minor typos and grammatical errors are however corrected without notice, but we will mention "Update" in the headline if we add new information or statements to an already published fact-check report.

We adhere to IFCN's Code of Principle of commitment to impartiality, transparency and accuracy. We fact-check claims that, if left unchecked, will have huge implications on people's lives such as hoaxes and rumors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We don't fact-check someone's opinions or intentions. We also refrain from fact-checking something which we cannot verify using publicly available information.

We fact-check the statements made by people holding public office, both elected and unelected, on the radio, television, newspapers and social media. We also fact-check rumors and pictures that have widely circulated on the social media.

Normally, fact-checkers pitch ideas for fact-checking after researching the materials available on digital, print as well as the social media. If the editor feels an idea merits fact-check, he assigns the work to a fact-checker. The fact-checker prepares a report and shares it with team members for a peer-review. After the review, the editor edits the report and publishes it.

We take the following steps before ascertaining whether to fact-check a statement or not:

First step:

We see whether the statement was indeed made by the same individual or someone else had attributed the statement to that individual. For this we search for the audio or video containing the statement. If the person has made the statement through his own social media account, then we consider the statement as his own. If needed we contact the person concerned and ask him/her whether the statement was his/her own or not. Once we make sure that the statement was the person’s own, we examine whether the statistics used in the statement are sensitive enough to merit fact-checking. If the answer is yes then we fact-check it.

Second step:

To see whether the statistics used in the statement are correct or not, we study relevant publicly-available publications of impartial and competent authorities. For instance, government statistics, census reports, books and journals etc. We don’t fact-check statements that cannot be verified on the basis of publicly available documents/statistics/evidences. Also, we don’t publish the results of fact-check statements/claims that are correct, except for the statements that are against popular belief.

Third step:

Once a member of our team prepares a fact-check report, we double check the report through another member of the team and then publish the report.

Readers can fact-check

In order to facilitate our readers to examine our fact-check reports, we include in our reports the reference materials and evidences used for checking the facts.

Request to readers

If you feel that any statements from public office bearer needs to be fact-checked, then please write to us at [email protected]

Deepak Adhikari
Editor
Deepak Adhikari is the editor of South Asia Check, a fact-checking initiative by Panos South Asia. For over a decade, Ahikari has worked for major international news agencies and publications. He worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP), the global news agency and dpa, the German news agency, as a reporter in Nepal. His work has appeared in leading international outlets including New York Times, Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, Time magazine. He has written longform stories for magazines including The Caravan, Himal Southasian. He has also written chapters in two books: Garrisoned Minds: Women and Armed Conflict in South Asia and The Caravan Book of Profiles.
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Mohan Mainali
Former Editor
Mainali is the former editor of South Asia Check. He has more than 20 years of journalism working in different newsrooms. He is also an accomplished documentary maker and has written several books about Nepal. He was awarded the prestigious Padmashree Literary Prize in 2015 for his latest book ‘Mantha Darayeko Jug’.  

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Dilip Dhakal
Copy editor
Dhakal has more than fifteen years of experience working in Nepal’s leading newsrooms. He was also the head of the media monitoring project of Panos South Asia between 2012 and 2015. He holds an MBA from the Tribhuvan University.
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Injina Panthi
Reporter
Panthi has a masters’ degree in international relations and diplomacy from the Tribhuvan University. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications. She also teaches post graduate students at the Tribhuvan Uuniversity. Before joining Southasiacheck.org, she worked as a freelance feature writer focusing on women’s issues.
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Sanjog Shiwakoti
Reporter
Shiwakoti  is currently pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Kathmandu University. He has over a decade's experience in digital media and photography.

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Pravin Bhatta
Reporter
Pravin Bhatta is currently pursuing Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of Laws at TU faculty of Law, Nepal Law Campus. He has four years of experience in engaging youths to understand the federal system of Nepal through 'Youth in Federal Discourse'. He co-authored Exquisite Key, for law Aspirants, in 2019.
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Grants received
US $7679 (2013, FOSI, Initial start-up grant)
US$ 40,000 (2016, NED)
U$ 41,400 (2017, NED)
US$31,755 (2018, OSF)
US$36,230 ( 2019, OSF)
US $ 33,743 ( 2020, OSF)