Corrections Policy
We get things wrong. On a beat where most of the primary information is contested and much of it arrives from people with a stake in it, a newsroom claiming otherwise is either lucky or lying. This page says what happens to an error once it is spotted, how fast, and who signs the decision off. Last updated: August 2026.
Correction, clarification, update
Three different things get muddled under one word, so we separate them and put the right label on the page. A correction means we published something factually wrong: a figure, a name, a date, a district, an attribution given to the wrong person. A clarification means the copy was accurate but could reasonably be read as saying something we had not established, which with displacement and casualty numbers happens more often than a flat error. An update means the story moved after publication, because a toll rose or a district changed hands again.
The distinction matters because a reader is entitled to know whether we were wrong or whether the world changed. Dressing an error up as an update is the oldest trick on the internet and we do not use it. If the first version said a district had been recaptured and it had not, that is a correction, and the note says so in those words.
The note goes on the story
Corrections are made on the original article, at the address where the mistake was read, with a dated note a reader cannot miss. It says what the story said before, what it says now, and when we changed it. An unmarked edit is not a correction, it is a cover.
Headlines, standfirsts and captions get treated like body text, because for most readers those are the only parts read. Where the error was in the headline, the note records the old headline in full. Where a photograph was wrong, and pictures recirculated from older incidents are a standing hazard here, the caption carries the correction and the image is replaced.
Serious errors and small ones
Not everything needs a public note. A misspelled word, a broken link, a duplicated line, a formatting fault: these get fixed without ceremony, because notes about typos bury the notes that matter.
Anything touching meaning gets a visible note. A number, a name, a date, an attribution, a location, or whether an event was confirmed rather than claimed. Where a reader who saw the first version would have taken away something false, the corrected story goes back in front of readers. If the mistake was ours rather than a source’s, the note says that too.
Telling us
Write to support@somaliupdate.com with the headline in the subject line and the sentence you think is wrong. It is the only address we run and editors read it. If you can say what the right figure or spelling is, and where it comes from, say that as well.
We acknowledge a report within one working day and decide within two. Anything touching a live security story, a casualty figure or an allegation against a named person is looked at the same day. If a claim needs a second source before we can act, the reply tells you so instead of going quiet. The emails we open first are from readers telling us a story about their own district is wrong.
Where the correction has to travel
An error does not stay on the page it was published on. When we correct something that also went out in the newsletter, the next edition carries the correction. A social post with a wrong figure in it is deleted, or corrected in a reply attached to the original, not left standing while the article is repaired behind it.
Where a piece has been republished under an arrangement with us or picked up by an aggregator, we tell them in writing what changed and ask them to run the correction. We cannot compel a third party and will not pretend the request is a guarantee. Diaspora messaging groups go on circulating the first version for years, which is one reason the corrected article stays up and searchable.
We correct rather than delete
A published story is a record, and taking it down is not a way of putting it right. The default is to correct or update, with the note attached. Requests to remove a piece because it has become inconvenient, because a case settled, or because a reputation firm has been retained are refused, in writing.
The exceptions are narrow and we will name them. We remove or redact where publication puts a person in physical danger, which here usually means an identifying detail about a source, a witness or a survivor that we should not have printed. We remove where we have no lawful basis to publish, and where a valid court order requires it. Where a story was wrong the whole way through, it comes down to a standing note at the same address saying it was withdrawn and why. Copyright complaints take the route on our DMCA page.
Who decides, and what we keep
The editor who handled the story owns the fix. The managing editor approves any correction touching a security claim, a casualty or displacement figure, or an allegation against a named person, and a correction to our own reporting is never decided by the reporter who filed it. Where the desk and a complainant disagree, the managing editor answers in writing and says what evidence would change our mind.
Significant corrections are logged with the date, the article, what was wrong and how it got through, and the desk reads that log rather than filing it. Most of our worst errors came from the same place: one interested party, early, on the phone. The standards behind these decisions are on our editorial standards page, and the checks a claim faces first are in our fact-checking policy.
