How Trikon decides what “Left”, “Centre” and “Right” mean.

Trikon does not tell you what is true. It shows you the same story across the left, center, and right of the Indian press, and routes you to independent fact-checkers to verify contested claims.

Each outlet carries a lean rating on a -3 (far left) to +3 (far right) scale. Where Media Bias/Fact Check rates an outlet, we seed our score from their rating and link it, so that call has a cited basis. Today that is 20 of 81 outlets. The other 61 carry an editorial estimate: a judgement made by a person here, with the basis stated, and no algorithm involved. The gap is widest in the Indian language press, where MBFC rates 1 of our 29 Hindi outlets. There is no authoritative left-right dataset for Indian media, so treat all of this as directional, not definitive.

The left-right frame is itself an imperfect fit for India, where 'pro-establishment vs critical' is often the more telling axis. We show left/center/right because it is legible, not because it is the whole truth.

You can push back, by writing to the grievance officer named on this page with the outlet and what you think the rating should be. Every challenge is answered and any change it produces appears in the log below. A reader vote on each outlet's lean, and an independent editorial review panel, are both planned and neither is built: until they are, the rating is ours alone and this page says so rather than implying a crowd stands behind it.

A story is flagged 'Andekha' (अनदेखा, Hindi for 'unseen') when one side of the press is not covering it at all while the other is — the coverage gap itself is the signal.

How ratings combine: MBFC's rating seeds the score where it exists (20 of 81 outlets today). Where another rater covers the outlet (e.g. AllSides on Hindustan Times), we show it alongside — including when it disagrees. The other 61 carry an editorial estimate, signed by a person and labelled as such wherever the rating is shown.

We never manufacture a factuality verdict. Every 'Verify' link points to an independent IFCN signatory (the global standard for fact-checker credibility): Alt News, BOOM, Factly, The Quint WebQoof, Vishvas News, NewsChecker and Fact Crescendo, cross-checked against Google's Fact Check Explorer. We do not link to government-run fact-check units, in India or anywhere, because a government checking claims about itself is not independent verification. The Bombay High Court struck down the Union government's Fact Check Unit in 2024.

Every outlet also carries its ownership — the group or family that controls it — as a matter of public record. When several outlets covering a story share one large owner, we flag the concentration, so you can weigh who is telling you the story.

How ratings combine

How ratings combine: MBFC's rating seeds the score where it exists (20 of 81 outlets today). Where another rater covers the outlet (e.g. AllSides on Hindustan Times), we show it alongside — including when it disagrees. The other 61 carry an editorial estimate, signed by a person and labelled as such wherever the rating is shown.

Where our ratings come from

Every outlet rating is either seeded from a named external rater, or marked as our own editorial estimate. Nothing is unattributed.

• Alt News
• BOOM
• Factly
• The Quint WebQoof
• Vishvas News
• NewsChecker
• Fact Crescendo
• Google Fact Check Explorer

What Trikon will not do

Trikon does not declare a claim true or false, and publishes no verdict of its own. Where a claim is contested, it links to independent IFCN-signatory fact-checkers so you can read their reasoning and disagree with it.

A lean rating describes a publication’s editorial tilt. It is an opinion about a masthead, never a statement of fact about a journalist, and never a judgement on whether a particular story is accurate.