The responsibilities related to this theme are addressed in the context of more general principles throughout the Rights and Responsibilities of the Press code of conduct.

An embargo sets time-of-release conditions on information distributed to journalists. In some cases, the aim is to give journalists more time to understand the material before they are obliged to write their stories, thus allowing them to provide a higher quality of information to the public.

Once a news organization accepts embargoed information, it is obliged to respect the embargo. Failure to respect embargoes tends to compromise sources’ trust and damage the reputation of the press. That said, information subject to embargo can be revealed prematurely if the same information is obtained from other sources or has already become public as the result of a leak, by mistake or by accident.

Journalists need not automatically accept the terms of an embargo that is requested, particularly when doing so is not in the public interest. When there is a clear and significant public interest served by the timely publication of embargoed information, and there has been no formal agreement to respect the requested embargo, there is no breach of ethics in publishing the information.