Fact-Checking Policy

Every article on UAE Current is checked before it is published. This page explains the order in which we trust sources, what we check, and how we show readers what we did. It sits alongside our editorial standards.

The sources we rely on, in order

1. The responsible authority. The law, decree, decision, circular or official page from the body that made the rule or holds the data: the UAE Cabinet, a federal ministry, an emirate government or authority, a regulator, a court, the Official Gazette, or the company concerned.
2. Official statements. Announcements carried by WAM, the UAE's state news agency, and the media offices of the emirates, reported as announcements until a document confirms the detail.
3. Official data. Statistics from the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, emirate statistics centres, the Central Bank of the UAE and other public datasets, with the period and definition.
4. Independent experts and documents. Used for context and interpretation, and attributed by name.

Social media posts, forwarded messages and screenshots are treated as leads, never as evidence. A claim that only exists in a viral post is checked with the authority it is about before we repeat it, and if it is false we say so.

What we check on every article

• Every fee, fine, deadline, threshold and eligibility rule, on the authority's own page or document.
• The stage a decision has reached and the date it takes effect.
• Whether the rule is federal or applies only to one emirate or free zone.
• Names, titles, law numbers and dates, exactly as the official source gives them.
• Every number: its source, unit, period and whether VAT is included.
• Every link, to make sure it goes where the article says it goes.

When sources disagree

If two official sources give different figures, for example a fee on a service portal that differs from the fee in a published decision, we say so in the article and tell the reader which one applies as far as we can establish. We do not pick one silently.

The evidence trail

For each article we keep a private record of the sources we read, the date we read them and anything that did not match. That record is how the editor reviews the piece and how we handle a later complaint. The public summary appears at the end of every article in a panel headed "How we verified this", which lists the primary sources and the date they were last checked.

Automated checks

Before an article can be published it must pass an automated quality gate. It blocks an article that has no primary source links, links to pages that do not exist, a missing sources section, missing dates or a missing byline. It does not replace human review; it makes sure the basics are never skipped.

After publication

Rules in the UAE change often. We re-check our guides when the authority updates its page, and we update the article and its "last checked" date only when the substance has changed. If a reader shows us a mistake, we follow our corrections policy. You can reach the newsroom through the contact page.