About · scope, limits, independence
What the project is
It is an editorial knowledge base: thirty pages of written material describing reporting practice, organised into four long lessons, ten subject chapters and a set of reference and notice pages. It is free to read, requires no account and asks for no personal information. It is published from Cork and written for readers in Ireland, though nothing in it is restricted to Irish readers.
The project exists because the mechanics of reporting are rarely written down for people outside a newsroom. Style guides are internal, codes of practice describe outcomes rather than method, and most published advice is either about ideals or about tools. What is missing is the ordinary sequence: what a reporter does, in what order, and where the decisions are made. That gap is what these chapters try to fill.
What the project is not
It is not a school, college, training provider or awarding body. It runs no course, takes no enrolment, sets no assessment and issues no certificate, transcript, credit or qualification of any kind. It holds no accreditation and claims none. Nothing on this site is evidence of training for an employer, an institution or a professional body, and nothing here should be described to anybody as a credential.
It is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. It is not a recruitment service and arranges no work placement, internship, shift or commission. It is not a publisher of news, so it does not report current events and is not a member of any press self-regulatory scheme. It is not a representative body and speaks for nobody in the profession.
A free reading room
Thirty pages of teaching notes, open to anyone, with no account, no fee and nothing collected about you unless you write to the desk.
An awarding body
No assessment, no certificate, no credit, no accreditation, no completion record, now or later.
Independently funded
Paid for by the operating company named in the colophon, with no advertising, sponsorship or paid placement.
An adviser
No legal, professional or personal advice about any specific article, source, complaint or publication decision.
Independence and funding
The site carries no advertising, no sponsored chapter, no affiliate link, no paid placement and no tracking or analytics tag. It sells nothing, so there is no price list, no subscription and no invoice. It is funded from the ordinary resources of Craft of Reporting Ltd, the company named in the colophon of every page, and it accepts no payment from any organisation mentioned in its chapters.
No outside body directs the material. Where an institution is named, the reference is neutral and describes where a record or a rule sits; it never indicates approval, membership, supervision or endorsement in either direction. If that ever changed, the change would be stated on this page before it appeared anywhere else on the site.
Who writes it
The chapters are written and reviewed by an editorial desk working to the editorial charter. Material is published under the desk's collective responsibility rather than under personal bylines, and the site deliberately uses no staff names and no photographs of people. That is a considered choice: a teaching resource that argues against inventing named individuals should not decorate itself with them either.
The functions are described by role. A writing function drafts against a section list. A verification function reads each draft against its sources. A boundary function checks that no sentence has become advice about a specific situation. A structure function checks numbering, tables, checklists, link resolution and accessibility. In a small desk one person may hold several of these, which is why the passes are separated in time rather than by person.
| Function | Answerable for | Evidence it leaves |
|---|---|---|
| Writing | Section list, drafting, worked examples | The chapter and its source list |
| Verification | Every claim traced to a named instrument, code or record | Notes against each section |
| Boundary | No sentence functioning as advice on a specific situation | Rewritten or removed paragraphs |
| Structure | Numbering, tables, checklists, links, alt text, contrast | The pre-publication check log |
| Corrections | Receiving, assessing and publishing fixes within five working days | A dated correction log |
Who it is written for
The intended reader is an adult who writes something that will be published: a student on a college paper, a community newsletter editor, a freelance contributor, a press officer who wants to understand what a newsroom will do with a release, a researcher who needs to know how records are used, or somebody deciding whether to pursue journalism properly. No prior newsroom experience is assumed anywhere.
The material is not written for people who need a decision now. If you are facing a pre-publication complaint, a demand for your notes, a court order, a data-protection request or a defamation letter, the chapters can only help you identify the kind of problem you have. The decision belongs to a qualified professional who can read your documents, and that limit is stated in the disclaimer as well as here.
The shape of the material
Thirty pages sounds arbitrary and is not. Four long lessons carry a complete task each, because some things only make sense as a sequence: you cannot understand where a right of reply belongs without seeing the whole day it sits in. Ten subject chapters take a single element and examine it in eight numbered sections, because some things only make sense in isolation, examined slowly. The remaining pages are reference and notice material that the chapters lean on rather than repeating.
Every chapter carries the same furniture for the same reason. Sections are numbered so a reader can return to one. Tables set options against the situations they suit and the way they fail, because a list of options without failure modes teaches nothing. Checklists are written for the moment before filing rather than for revision afterwards. Marginal notes hold the caveat that would otherwise clutter a paragraph. Worked figures are in words, sentences, items, minutes, days and percentages, never in money.
Why it is published from Cork
The desk is based in Cork and writes with Irish practice in view, which affects the material in two concrete ways. The law and ethics chapter names Irish instruments and bodies rather than generic principles, so a reader knows which statute governs a question and which office handles a complaint. And the examples of records a reporter actually uses are Irish ones: releases from the Central Statistics Office, agendas and minutes of local authorities, entries in public registers, court lists.
None of that makes the technique local. Interviewing, verification, structure and editing work the same way anywhere, and a reader outside Ireland can use those chapters unchanged. What they should not do is transplant the legal sections: those should be read as a template for the questions to ask about their own jurisdiction, with the answers obtained locally from somebody qualified.
Accuracy, corrections and reader contact
Every chapter is reviewed on a stated interval and immediately when an instrument it names is amended. Corrections are logged with a date and, where a fact changes, described on the page itself. The routes for corrections, privacy requests and accessibility feedback are on the contact page, with a five working day response window, a short form for a self-contained message, and the desk's email address and telephone number for anyone who would rather write or speak directly.
The commitments on this page in short
- Free to read, with no account, no fee and nothing collected beyond essential storage and whatever you choose to write to the desk.
- No qualification, credit, accreditation, certificate or completion record, ever.
- No advertising, sponsorship, affiliate link, paid placement or analytics tag.
- No invented named people, no personal bylines, no staff photographs.
- Institutions named neutrally, with no claim of membership, approval or supervision.
- Corrections logged and answered within five working days.