Whistleblower and source protection

Last updated 28 September 2026

Our commitment

We regard the protection of a confidential source as an absolute professional obligation. Where we agree to protect your identity, we do not disclose it to anyone outside the editorial process, and we will resist any attempt to compel disclosure, relying on section 10 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights as given effect by the Human Rights Act 1998. That protection does not expire when a story is published.

How to contact us

• Email privacy@stateoftherealm.org with the subject line "Confidential". Tell us at the outset that you are contacting us in confidence.
• Please do not use a work email account, a work phone or a work computer. Employers can lawfully monitor their own systems, and that is the most common way sources are identified.
• Use a personal device on a personal network, and consider creating a new email account that is not linked to your name.
• If you would prefer an encrypted channel or a postal address, say so in a short first message without details of your disclosure, and we will arrange one.

No method of contact is completely risk free. We will always tell you honestly what we can and cannot protect before you share anything sensitive.

What we do with what you send

• We agree the terms of confidentiality with you before publication, and we keep to them.
• We verify material independently. Documents are checked against primary records, and we do not publish on the strength of a single unverified claim.
• We remove identifying details, such as printer marks, document watermarks, file metadata and turns of phrase, that could point back to you.
• We store sensitive material separately from our ordinary systems, limit access to the editors working on the story, and destroy it when it is no longer needed.
• We will not name you, quote you in a way that identifies you, or hand over notes, files or correspondence to any third party without your consent.

Your legal position

Workers in the United Kingdom who make a qualifying disclosure in the public interest, including about a criminal offence, a failure to meet a legal obligation, a miscarriage of justice, a danger to health and safety, damage to the environment, or the concealment of any of these, have protection from dismissal and detriment under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Disclosure to a journalist can be protected, though the conditions are narrower than for disclosure to an employer or a prescribed regulator. We are journalists, not lawyers, and nothing here is legal advice. Free confidential guidance is available from Protect, the whistleblowing charity, on 020 3117 2520.

What we will not do

• We do not pay for information, and we do not pay criminals or their associates for material.
• We do not encourage anyone to break the law or to put their safety at risk to obtain documents.
• We do not publish private or personal material where the harm of doing so clearly outweighs the public interest.

Privacy of your data

Correspondence from confidential sources is handled outside the systems described in our privacy policy and is not linked to any account on this site. The wider rules we work to are set out in the Editorial Code of Practice.