This page describes how Mosul Eye sources, verifies, and publishes its dispatches. It is meant to be read by anyone — researchers, journalists, students, readers — who wants to understand how this record is made.
What this archive is
Mosul Eye is a primary-source record of Mosul, written from inside it. The first dispatch was published at 9:30 am on 17 June 2014, the day the city fell to the so-called Islamic State. The project has continued, in different forms, every year since — through occupation, liberation, and the long work of recovery.
Sourcing
Every dispatch on Mosul Eye is sourced from at least one person on the ground in Mosul, or — for historical entries — from a primary document: a manuscript, a photograph, a letter, an oral history recording.
Between 2014 and 2017, while the city was under occupation, dispatches were written anonymously and the names of contributors were never published. That practice remains: the names of sources are withheld whenever there is a credible risk of harm to the source, their family, or their community.
Verification
Mosul Eye does not republish what it cannot verify. Verification rests on three working rules:
- Two independent sources for any claim of fact that cannot be observed directly.
- Documentary evidence wherever possible — a photograph, a video, a dated document, a recording — preserved in a private working archive that is available to academic researchers on request.
- Public correction, dated, when a previously-published dispatch is found to be incomplete or wrong. Corrections appear at the foot of the original dispatch.
What this archive is not
Mosul Eye is not a news outlet. It does not chase breaking news. It does not publish on a schedule. Dispatches go out when there is something worth saying, when sourcing is complete, and when the work of writing is done. Some dispatches take years to publish.
It is also not an institution. The archive is independent — it takes no advertising and accepts no government money. It is funded by readers.
Access and re-use
Dispatches are published under a Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 licence except where noted. Researchers, journalists, and educators may quote and reproduce dispatches with attribution; commercial re-use requires permission. Photographs and audio recordings have their own licences, attached to each item.
If you need access to underlying source materials — transcripts, original photographs, audio — for academic or journalistic work, please reach out through the contact route on the About page.