Evident is a nonprofit news organization that produces documentary journalism for the public good. We are independent and nonpartisan. We are driven by our journalistic mission, not by profit incentives, shareholders, or advertisers.
Our journalism is accessible and transparent. This means all of our major projects are provided for anyone online to watch for free. This also means we strive for radical transparency in our editorial decision-making, reporting, and production.
What is “documentary journalism”?
Documentary journalism presents information in a visually engaging story, guided by a set of standards for reporting with accuracy and fairness.
What makes this journalism?
In an era of endless storytelling possibilities, the lines have blurred between established media outlets, independent journalists, and startup newsrooms. Regardless of the resources around a reporting project, we believe “journalism” is a word that describes a fact-finding process with high standards for accuracy and fairness — and with the aim of informing the public.
How does Evident find its stories?
We gather story ideas from our community, our network of journalists, and from our partners, including independent newsrooms at the local, national, and international level. We are interested in any story that gives us the opportunity to inform and engage an audience through documentary journalism. This typically means we are looking for story ideas that allow us to advance reporting on a topic while also telling a visually compelling story. We do not accept or pursue stories, nor do we ignore stories, in exchange for payment, favors, or for any other reason than the potential for providing public value through documentary journalism. Any projects produced in partnership with, or directly co-financed by, another organization are clearly presented as such.
How does Evident report its stories?
We only report facts that can be verified via multiple sources, whether human or evidence-based. We strive for fairness, and we consider all sides of a story.
These are the things we do not do in our reporting.
We don’t pay for interviews.
We don’t plagiarize.
We don’t practice false equivalence. This means we prioritize coverage of various perspectives and arguments based on relevance, supporting evidence, and motive. We value scientific consensus and peer-reviewed research and expertise in deciding what information we include in our reporting.
We don’t accept images or video as evidence unless we have independently verified them.
We don’t fabricate information, either factual or visual. This means we don’t use composite characters or fictional ages, places or dates in our stories.
And we don’t use AI-generated video, images, or text in our reporting. When we do show AI-generated imagery, it’s only for the purposes of reporting on AI-related stories, and it is clearly presented as AI-generated.
We use anonymous sources only in rare cases, such as when revealing the identity of a whistleblower would risk their well being. In these cases, we provide an explanation within the project for why we refrained from naming our source. Anything told to us by an anonymous source must be verified through a separate source or evidence before we report it as fact.
How is Evident transparent?
We strive for radical transparency in our editorial decision-making, reporting, and production. This means we are willing to go further than many traditional news organizations in sharing information with our viewers. This includes:
We explain how we know something is a fact if it’s in dispute. If we are reporting information exclusively covered in prior reporting, we will cite the original source of reporting.
How does Evident edit its stories?
We aim to show our viewers more context beyond the interviews and footage that end up in our final project, publishing transcripts and other material to give a fuller view of our reporting process. However, every project is limited in the material it can include. Often, dozens of hours of footage are condensed down to a half-hour project to ensure information is presented clearly.
There are several standards that we follow in our editing process to ensure accuracy and fairness in our projects.
Edited material must preserve the meaning of original quotes and information. Our editing must clarify, not mislead. We select and shorten quotes to include in projects, but we never change the intent or meaning of what the source said.
When necessary for clarity, we may improve the technical quality of audio, video, or photographs through human editing, and we may blur obscene or graphic material, but we never manipulate material to include something it did not originally include.
Any animation or illustrations included in projects must appear recognizably different from real footage.
What do we expect of Evident’s team members?
Evident’s team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner with the knowledge that their actions represent Evident while employed with us.
This means, during their period of employment with Evident, team members:
What do we expect from our community and viewers?
We do not tolerate discrimination or hate speech in any form on Evident platforms, including by viewers in comments, forums, and other forms of feedback to Evident’s projects and team members. Any viewer who violates this will be blocked or banned on the platforms we operate.
We appreciate any and all feedback. If you feel Evident or a team member has failed to meet any of the standards outlined above, please let us know at contact@evidentmedia.org.
EVIDENT collects and processes Personal Data (which we define below) about you from your use of this website and through other means, such as by contacting us directly by phone or email or more generally in the course of operating our business. This Privacy Notice explains how we collect Personal Data, how we use your Personal Data and how you can assert your rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. This Privacy Notice does not address our privacy practices with respect to any Personal Data we may collect from an investor in the funds that we sponsor or manage. We address these practices in separate notices to investors.
“Personal Data” is any information relating to you or that we can otherwise link to you.
The Personal Data we collect on this website may include your name, email address, residential address, IP address, login information for our investor portal and other contact information. Some of this information we will only have access to if you provide it to us. When you visit our website, we may collect information about you when you enter and browse our website through the use of “cookies,” web server logs and other electronic tools. This information may include, without limitation, the number and frequency of your visits to our website, the websites accessed before and after you visit our website, the internet browser used by you and your IP address.
In addition to Personal Data collected from your use of our website, we may also collect Personal Data regarding our business contacts, current and prospective investors, vendors and other contacts. We will collect some of this Personal Data if you contact our office or employees directly.
We collect Personal Data that you voluntarily provide to us, such as through “contact us” forms you choose to submit on our website to obtain more information about EVIDENT or our funds. We may also collect Personal Data through the use of “cookies” on our website, in the ordinary course of evaluating service providers, vendors and investments, in marketing our funds or from publicly available or accessible directories, databases and agencies.
We use the Personal Data we collect from you on our website for communication purposes, such as, but not limited to (i) sending you information about EVIDENT and/or our investment funds and (ii) maintaining our list of contacts. We use the Personal Data we collect from you through other means for business purposes, such as, but not limited to (i) communicating with service providers and vendors and (ii) researching investment opportunities.
We process your Personal Data collected from your use of this website for certain business reasons, including communication and marketing purposes. We process your Personal Data collected by other means for other business reasons, including managing our business and our funds’ investments.
You are not required to submit information to us through this website. However, we may collect “cookies”, which do not require your consent. For our service providers, vendors, investors and other contacts, it is necessary to provide some Personal Data in order for us to do business with you.