Right of reply
If The Files or The Tayo Report is about to publish something that reflects on you, your organisation or your conduct, you will hear it from us first. This page is the whole procedure, so that nobody has to take our word for what we do.
What we send
A written request, by email, that sets out the specific claims we intend to publish about you, the documents or statements they rest on, and the question we are asking you to answer. We do not send vague "we are writing about you" notes, and we do not send the full draft. The request names a reply address, a deadline, and the person responsible for the piece.
The window
- 48 hours for an investigation (The Files) and for any commentary that names a person in connection with alleged wrongdoing.
- 24 hours where the matter is already public and moving, for example a court filing, an official statement or a document that has been published elsewhere. We say in the request which window applies and why.
The window runs from the time the email is sent, in West Africa Time. A request for more time is considered if it comes with a reason; it is not granted automatically.
What we do with your reply
If you respond, the relevant part of your response is published alongside the claim it answers, verbatim where it is short enough and fairly summarised where it is not. If your response shows a claim to be wrong, the claim is removed before publication. If your response disputes a claim without showing it to be wrong, both are published and the reader sees the sources for each.
If you do not reply
The piece says so, in the sentence where your response would have appeared: that a request was sent, when, and that no response was received by the deadline. A late response is added to the published piece as an update, dated, and logged on the corrections page.
What a reply request is not
It is not an invitation to negotiate the piece, and it is not notice of the publication time. Our legal and record-keeping work is complete before the request goes out, because in Nigeria a reply request to a powerful subject has been used as advance warning to file a police petition against the reporter. We send the request anyway, because the duty is real. We keep the window tight for the same reason.
After publication
Every factual claim on this site carries its source. If you believe one is wrong, write to corrections@kairosreports.com with the claim and the evidence. Corrections are made on the piece and logged, dated, on the public corrections page. Nothing is silently edited.