How news corrections work

What a correction is

A correction tells readers that something a publisher printed, aired or posted was wrong, and gives the right fact. The SPJ Code of Ethics, revised on 4 October 2026, tells journalists to acknowledge mistakes, correct them promptly and prominently, and explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly ¹.

The UK Editors' Code of Practice, in force from 1 January 2025, says the press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information. It requires significant inaccuracies to be corrected promptly and with due prominence, with an apology where appropriate ².

ProPublica's code of ethics says mistakes need to be corrected fully, quickly and ungrudgingly ⁵. The Trust Project lists actionable feedback among its eight trust indicators and asks whether a news site corrects errors quickly, clearly and prominently ⁶.

Who decides and how

Each outlet writes its own procedure. At The Globe and Mail all corrections must be vetted by the public editor, and all significant factual errors are corrected, including in headlines, captions and photos ⁴.

At ProPublica, when a source, subject or member of the public raises a concern about fairness or accuracy, the reporters review it with their editor and decide on a response ⁵. The Associated Press statement of news values, in a copy archived in January 2009, told staff to notify supervisory editors of errors or potential errors as soon as possible ⁷.

The main labels

Outlets use a small set of labels. The Washington Post policy says a correction is used when it substantively corrects an article, photo caption, headline, graphic or video. A clarification is used when the facts were right but the language was not clear or detailed enough. An editor's note is for a problem that calls the whole article into question or raises a significant ethical matter ³.

The archived AP statement said a correction must always be labelled a correction, and that AP does not use words such as recasts, fixes, clarifies or changes when correcting a factual error ⁷.

Where corrections appear

In print, many papers keep corrections in one fixed place. The Globe and Mail publishes corrections for all items on page A2, including errors in columnists' work ⁴. The Press Council of South Africa guidance says minor print corrections may go on any inside page as an editor's note, and significant ones should go on the same page where the report first appeared ⁸.

Online, the same guidance says factual errors, minor or otherwise, must be corrected in all versions of the article online. The note must be clearly labelled as a correction with the amendment date ⁸. The guidance is non-binding and no complaint may be lodged under it ⁸.

Fact-checkers and corrections

Fact-checking organisations that sign the International Fact-Checking Network code commit to an open and honest corrections policy. Signatories publish the policy, follow it scrupulously and correct clearly and transparently ⁹. The criteria ask that the policy be easy to find on the website and that users of the original see the correction ⁹.