Our method

Cameroon Presidential Desk reports and explains Cameroonian national politics. It is not affiliated with any party, campaign, government body or movement, and it takes no position on who should hold office or on how any contested question in Cameroonian politics should be settled. Every article is written to be usable by a reader who disagrees with it.

Where the reporting comes from

This desk has no correspondents. It reads what news organisations in Cameroon, the region and the wider world have already published, and writes from what those accounts collectively establish. The accounts behind every article are listed at its foot, each with a link to the original. The reporting belongs to the outlets that did it.

Every article is written to a standing brief, one per story type. Two shapes are published. A news brief reports one development in 150 to 250 words: the headline carries the key fact, the lead carries who, what, when and where, and a closing sentence says why it matters. An analysis runs 350 to 500 words and explains what a development means for the people who have to act on it, naming the rule, the article of law or the institution that decides the question. Both are held to the same standard of attribution, neutrality and sourcing, and neither carries section headings.

How claims are graded

Where the desk is confident, it says so plainly. Where it is not, it says which of three things a claim is:

• Confirmed. Two or more independent accounts state it, or a named institution with direct knowledge of it has said it on the record.
• Reported. One account states it and nothing contradicts it. The article attributes it to the actor making the claim rather than adopting it. A claim that reaches the desk from a single outlet and is contested by another is reported as contested, with both sides named.
• Unverified claim. It is circulating in public and is widely discussed, but no named source has confirmed it. Where such a claim is reported at all, the article says in the body that it is unverified and names who is circulating it. It never appears in a headline. Claims about a person’s health, about a death, or about violence are not published unless a named institution has confirmed them.

Nothing is published as a prediction stated as fact. Where an article describes what is expected rather than what has happened, it says who expects it.

Neutrality

On a contested question, both sides appear, each in the terms its own side uses and each attributed to the actor making the claim. No adjective passes judgement on a politician, a party or a government. Where the record leaves a question open, the article leaves it open.

Corrections

Every published article is re-read against its source material after it appears. A factual error is corrected in the article and a note is added at its foot saying what changed and when. Where a correction changes the substance of an article rather than its wording, the article carries an updated line with the date of the change.

An analysis is a record of what was known and argued on the day it ran, and it is not rewritten because the story moved on. A later development is published as a brief of its own, marked in its headline and linked back to the brief before it. What the desk concluded on the day stays readable exactly as it first ran.

To report an error, write to corrections@cameroonpresidential.com.

What this desk is not

Nothing here is investment, legal or electoral advice, and nothing here is a statement of support for any candidate, party or government.