Bastian Obermayer

This page indexes work published on AML Network under the byline above and sets out the standards applying to contributed material. It is not a biographical profile and makes no claim about the contributor beyond the work listed.

Commissioning and editing

Contributed pieces are edited for accuracy, structure and fairness before publication. Editing checks the text against the source material rather than against expectation: every material assertion should be traceable to a document, an on-record statement, or a clearly identified inference. Where an assertion cannot be supported at that standard, it is removed or reframed as what it is — an open question.

Material obtained in confidence

Reporting in this field often involves documents provided in confidence, or obtained from people exposed to legal or personal risk. Contributors working with such material are expected to establish its provenance and authenticity independently of whoever supplied it, to treat the supplier's motive as part of assessing the material rather than as a substitute for doing so, and to protect the identity of a source once confidentiality has been given. Confidentiality undertakings are treated as binding. Publication of confidential material is justified by a specific public interest in the disclosure, weighed against the harm it may cause, and never simply by the fact that the material exists.

Naming and proportionality

• People are named where their conduct or role is material to the story, not incidentally because they appear in a document.
• Uncharged individuals, family members and employees without decision-making responsibility are treated with particular care.
• The presence of a name in a leaked or obtained dataset is not by itself evidence of wrongdoing, and is not written as though it were.
• Anyone criticised is given a fair opportunity to respond, and the response is carried in the piece.

Corrections

Factual errors are corrected on the page with a dated note. Where the position changes after publication — proceedings discontinued, a finding overturned, a designation lifted — the article is updated rather than left standing on the earlier account.