How to Separate Confirmed Facts, Allegations, and Theories

Why the distinction matters

In work that touches real people, the difference between "this happened" and "this is alleged" is not a nicety — it is the difference between accuracy and harm. The presumption of innocence depends on it. If you let allegations quietly become facts, you have not just made an error; you have written someone into a story the evidence does not support.

A working taxonomy

Use a small, stable set of types, and define each by what the source establishes:

• Confirmed fact — sourced and corroborated; not contradicted by stronger evidence.
• Allegation — a claim made but not yet established.
• Testimony — an account given by a person, recorded as such.
• Inference — a conclusion you draw from evidence, labeled as your reasoning.
• Hypothesis — an explanation proposed to be tested.
• Unknown — not established one way or the other; say so plainly.

How to type a statement

Before you record a claim, ask one question: what does the source actually establish? A news report that says "police allege…" establishes that an allegation was made — it does not establish the underlying fact. A record that two independent sources confirm establishes something stronger. Type the statement to match the source, not your hopes.

When a fact changes

New evidence can change a fact's standing. When it does, correct it — and keep the original claim and its type in the record so the change is itself visible. A record that erases its own past is one nobody can audit.

Export without collapsing types

The type must survive into every report and export. A report that drops "alleged" on the way out is more dangerous than no report at all. Fact/allegation separation is not a formatting preference; it is the load- bearing wall of the whole record.

Common failure modes

• Upgrading an allegation to a fact because it is repeated often.
• Treating an inference as if it were an observation.
• Recording testimony as fact because the witness seems credible.
• Erasing the original type when a claim is later revised.

Sources & further reading

• Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics — the standard that journalists label fact as fact and distinguish it from allegation and opinion.