Ethiopia and the World
The Publication
Last updated: October 30, 2026
These are the standards The Abay Times applies to everything it publishes, in English, Amharic and Afaan Oromoo.
Our reporting and editorial decisions are not directed by political parties, governments or advertisers. Advertisements are labelled as advertising and kept separate from editorial content.
Articles carry the News Desk byline. The editorial desk is responsible for everything we publish.
We report from official statements, documents and other published reporting, and treat every source as evidence to be weighed, not as fact to be repeated. Claims are attributed to the people or institutions that made them.
When several outlets repeat one original claim, we do not count that as independent confirmation. When a single outlet established a disputed or exclusive claim, we name it. Earlier Abay Times articles give background; they are not used to corroborate a new claim.
We do not claim interviews, presence at events or access to documents that did not happen.
Government announcements, statements by armed groups, casualty figures and claims of territorial control are attributed to whoever made them and, where the situation can change, dated. They are not presented as established fact, and an allegation remains an allegation.
Where Ethiopian state media is the only source for a claim, the article says so. When accounts conflict, we say whose account each is and what remains disputed, rather than splitting the difference.
Before publication, the headline, summary, text and captions are checked against the same facts: names, titles, places, dates, chronology, numbers and quotations.
Figures are compared like for like, by definition and period: confirmed against claimed, nominal against real, expected against actual. Calculations are traced back to their source figures.
Direct quotes are used only for words we can verify, with their important qualifications kept. We quote full, meaningful statements or paraphrase faithfully, rather than stitching fragments together. We do not invent quotes, recollections or reactions.
A quote translated from another language is used only when the original text is available and the translation has been checked; otherwise we report what was said in our own words.
When new information changes a story about the same event, we update the existing article, keep its original publication date and show when it was updated.
When we get a fact wrong, we correct it and add a short note to the article saying what was wrong and what is right. Spelling and typing errors that do not change the meaning are fixed without a note. A clarification is used only for a statement that was accurate but could mislead; we do not present a correction as a clarification.
We do not delete articles to hide mistakes. Article addresses stay stable; if one has to change, the old address redirects to the new one.
Images are checked to match the story: subject, place and, where known, date. Captions describe what is shown. File photos, handouts, screen grabs and illustrations are labelled as such; an archive image is never presented as a picture of current events, and illustrations are not used as evidence of what happened.
If you believe we have published something inaccurate, tell us through the Contact page, with the article's address and what you think is wrong.