Summary¶
This is the only sanctioned route from an outside claim to an entry in this bundle. It exists because the domain's failure mode is not missing facts but laundering inference into fact — a failure that is invisible once it is written down.1
The seven steps¶
| Step | Action | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Register the source in the evidence ledger at retrieval time, not afterwards | A stable id |
| 2 | Read the page, not the snippet — fetch the page before quoting it | A retrieved artefact |
| 3 | State the claim in one sentence | A claim |
| 4 | Assign status — documented (named actor, primary record, authoritative body), inferred (consistent but unproven), contested (interested party, not independently established) |
A label |
| 5 | Name the interest if the source is a party organ, state media outlet or advocacy group | An interest note |
| 6 | State the test for any inferred claim — what would confirm or refute it |
A falsification note |
| 7 | Cite by footnote keyed to sources[].id, and cross-link the holder |
A finished concept |
The four checks that catch laundering¶
- Aggregation check. Are these independent outlets, or one wire story on many domains? Ten copies are one source.1
- Status-drift check. Does this concept cite an
inferredclaim from another concept as if it weredocumented? Search the cited concept for its label before reusing it. - Interest check. Would this source benefit from the claim being believed? If yes, it can be reported but not asserted.1
- Absence check. Is this an absence of evidence being written as evidence of absence? Record it as a coverage gap instead.
Worked example¶
Claim: "The communications ministry knowingly let a broadcaster keep a licence it had obtained illegally."
- Status:
documented, with a boundary. The committee found the "possibility is high" that the ministry ratified the illegal state and that "the charge that it distorted administration cannot be escaped" — and explicitly could not connect it to the hospitality.4 - Interest: the committee is independent (external experts, ministry staff excluded from the relevant bureaus), so the interest note is "none identified."
- Test for the adjacent
inferredclaim ("the hospitality bought the outcome"): the committee's own negative finding is the refutation, so that claim staysinferredat best and should not be written as established.