---
module_id: KB-06
version: 0.4.2
status: baseline_draft
edition: public
language: en
role: normative
updated_on: 2026-09-06
requires: ["KB-01", "KB-02", "KB-03", "KB-04", "KB-05", "KB-13"]
---

# Privacy, Harm and Sensitive Content

**Scope:** Privacy, personal data, identification, minors, vulnerable people, crime and accident victims, health and family information, suicide and self-harm reporting, doxxing, graphic or distressing material, live-risk situations and proportionate disclosure.

Factual accuracy does not by itself make information publishable. Public availability does not by itself remove privacy obligations. This module establishes a common editorial floor; local law, safeguarding rules and newsroom policy can impose stricter requirements.

<a id="pri-001"></a>
## PRI-001: Treat privacy as a separate publication question from factual accuracy

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** material contains personal, identifying, intimate, confidential or potentially harmful information about a person.

Ask separately whether the information is true, whether the newsroom may lawfully and ethically use it, and whether publication is necessary for the journalistic purpose. Do not infer permission to publish from verification alone.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Public-interest reasoning under KB-05 can justify publication of some private information when proportionate.

**Tests:** `CT24`, `CT25`.

<a id="pri-002"></a>
## PRI-002: Minimize personal data to what the story needs

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** personal details are collected, processed, stored, transferred or published.

Use only the personal information reasonably necessary for the editorial task. Avoid publishing addresses, contact details, identification numbers, private account data or other unnecessary identifiers merely because they are available. Apply stricter controls to unpublished working material than to ordinary public facts.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Details necessary for immediate public safety, accountability or another documented public-interest purpose may be retained or published proportionately.

**Tests:** `CT24`, `CT26`.

<a id="pri-003"></a>
## PRI-003: Assess indirect identification, not only names

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** a person is anonymized, pseudonymized or unnamed.

Consider whether combinations of location, age, school, employer, family relationship, photograph, role, chronology, distinctive event or other details make the person reasonably identifiable to the relevant audience. Removing a name does not guarantee anonymity.

**Exception or permitted variation:** A specialist or local profile may define stricter thresholds for small communities or protected categories.

**Tests:** `CT27`, `CT28`.

<a id="pri-004"></a>
## PRI-004: Apply heightened protection to minors

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** a child or minor is a subject, source, victim, suspect, witness, family member or otherwise identifiable in sensitive coverage.

Assess the likely short- and long-term consequences for the child independently of adult consent. Use particular restraint with identification in family disputes, care proceedings, crime, sexual matters, health, education discipline and other sensitive contexts. A parent or guardian's consent does not automatically make disclosure proportionate.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Strong public-interest or safeguarding grounds can justify identification, but require explicit senior editorial review and any applicable legal or safeguarding check.

**Tests:** `CT29`, `CT30`.

<a id="pri-005"></a>
## PRI-005: Recognize vulnerability as context, not as a label

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** a person may have reduced ability to understand, consent, respond or protect themselves because of age, trauma, grief, disability, illness, coercion, detention, dependency, crisis or another relevant circumstance.

Adapt interviewing, consent, timing, identification and publication decisions to the actual vulnerability. Do not assume incapacity solely from a diagnosis, social group or status. Preserve dignity and avoid exploiting distress for dramatic effect.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Urgent public-interest reporting may proceed without ordinary interaction when direct engagement would increase harm or is impossible.

**Tests:** `CT31`, `CT32`.

<a id="pri-006"></a>
## PRI-006: Use particular care with victims, relatives and people in acute distress

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** covering accidents, disasters, violent crime, death, missing persons, bereavement or other acute trauma.

Avoid unnecessary intrusion, repeated pressure and premature identification. Do not identify deceased or missing people before appropriate notification where the applicable newsroom or jurisdiction requires that safeguard. Treat images, live reporting and requests for user-generated material with heightened care.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Immediate safety or identification needs can alter the balance, but the rationale must be recorded.

**Tests:** `CT31`, `CT33`.

<a id="pri-007"></a>
## PRI-007: Protect victims of sexual and similarly sensitive offences from unnecessary identification

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** reporting sexual violence, sexual abuse or another category where identification can create severe secondary harm or legal restrictions.

Do not publish direct or indirect identifiers of a protected victim unless a documented lawful and editorially justified exception applies. Check whether identifying an accused person, location, relationship or image would reveal the victim.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Consent does not override legal restrictions. A jurisdiction overlay must control where law defines mandatory anonymity or exceptions.

**Tests:** `CT34`, `CT35`.

<a id="pri-008"></a>
## PRI-008: Use proportionality when identifying suspects, accused people and convicted people

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** naming or depicting a person connected with alleged or proven wrongdoing.

Consider procedural stage, seriousness, public role, relevance of identity, risk to third parties, age, risk of wrongful suspicion and continuing public-interest need. Identification should serve a legitimate journalistic purpose, not function as punishment. Preserve the distinction between suspicion, charge, conviction and final outcome.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Immediate protection of others, preventing wrongful suspicion of innocent people, or clear relevance of public role can support identification when proportionate.

**Tests:** `CT18`, `CT36`.

<a id="pri-009"></a>
## PRI-009: Apply heightened necessity to intimate health, family and personal-life information

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** material concerns health, disability, sexuality, family relationships, private correspondence, home life, finances or similarly intimate matters.

Do not publish merely because the information is obtainable or appears in a public record. Establish the journalistic relevance and public-interest basis, and use the minimum detail necessary. Avoid stigmatizing descriptions of protected or sensitive characteristics.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Voluntary public disclosure by the person can reduce but does not eliminate the need for context, accuracy and proportionality.

**Tests:** `CT25`, `CT37`.

<a id="pri-010"></a>
## PRI-010: Cover suicide and self-harm with heightened harm awareness

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** reporting suicide, attempted suicide or self-harm.

Use non-sensational language, avoid unnecessary operational detail about methods or locations, consider effects on relatives and vulnerable audiences, and include help-seeking information when appropriate to the format and audience. Do not speculate about a single cause without strong evidence.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Method details may be journalistically necessary in exceptional public-interest investigations or safety reporting, but require senior editorial review and a specialist profile where available.

**Tests:** `CT38`, `CT39`.

<a id="pri-011"></a>
## PRI-011: Do not facilitate doxxing or foreseeable targeted harm

**Level:** MUST NOT. **Applies when:** publication or an AI output could expose a private person's precise location, contact details, routine, credentials, protected source identity or other data that materially increases risk of harassment, violence or unauthorized access.

Redact or generalize unnecessary high-risk details. Separate what editors need internally from what the audience needs publicly. Treat combinations of data as potentially identifying even when each element is individually public.

**Exception or permitted variation:** A specific public-safety or accountability need can justify limited disclosure after proportionality and specialist review.

**Tests:** `CT26`, `CT40`.

<a id="pri-012"></a>
## PRI-012: Apply the same harm and privacy standards to images, audio and user-generated content

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** selecting, editing, captioning or publishing visual or audio material.

Check whether the material reveals identity, location, medical condition, grief, nudity, violence or other sensitive information. Cropping, blurring or removing metadata may be necessary but does not automatically remove identification risk. Captions must not create a misleading context.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Documentary necessity can justify distressing material when the public-interest value is strong, the audience is appropriately warned where needed, and less intrusive alternatives would materially weaken the reporting.

**Tests:** `CT33`, `CT41`.

<a id="pri-013"></a>
## PRI-013: Consent is relevant but not always sufficient

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** publication relies on consent from a subject, parent, guardian or source.

Assess whether consent was informed, voluntary and specific enough for the intended use. Consider whether the person understood publication scale, persistence and foreseeable consequences. For children and vulnerable people, apply independent harm and public-interest analysis even when consent exists.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Ordinary interviews with informed adults generally do not require a separate formal consent record unless the newsroom profile or law requires it.

**Tests:** `CT30`, `CT42`.

<a id="pri-014"></a>
## PRI-014: Use the least intrusive disclosure that still serves the public interest

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** a story has a legitimate public-interest case but includes private or harmful details.

Test alternatives such as anonymization, delayed identification, broader location, paraphrase, partial image, omission of irrelevant intimate detail or publication of aggregated data. If a less intrusive form achieves substantially the same journalistic purpose, prefer it.

**Exception or permitted variation:** Do not anonymize so aggressively that the result becomes misleading, shields powerful actors from legitimate accountability or wrongly shifts suspicion to others.

**Tests:** `CT15`, `CT43`.

<a id="pri-015"></a>
## PRI-015: Separate protected internal handling from public disclosure

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** editors need sensitive information to verify a story even though the audience does not need that information.

Allow controlled internal use only within authorized data and source-protection boundaries. Redact or omit sensitive details from downstream prompts, dashboards, exports and public outputs when they are not needed. Do not treat internal verification access as publication permission.

**Exception or permitted variation:** A newsroom profile may impose stronger access controls or retention limits.

**Tests:** `CT40`, `CT44`.

<a id="pri-016"></a>
## PRI-016: Avoid live disclosure that can worsen an active danger

**Level:** MUST. **Applies when:** real-time reporting could reveal tactical locations, hostage information, vulnerable-person movements, emergency response details or other information that may foreseeably increase immediate harm.

Delay, generalize or withhold the dangerous detail while preserving the public's need for verified safety information. Coordinate the editorial decision at the appropriate senior or specialist level. Do not repeat operational details from social media merely because they are already circulating.

**Exception or permitted variation:** An immediate warning can justify location or operational detail when publication itself is necessary to reduce harm.

**Tests:** `CT45`, `CT46`.

## Minimum sensitive-content decision record

For high-impact decisions, record:

- person or group affected;
- direct and indirect identifiers;
- sensitivity category;
- factual necessity of the detail;
- public-interest rationale if relied upon;
- less intrusive alternatives considered;
- consent status where relevant;
- foreseeable harms and mitigations;
- legal or safeguarding overlay required;
- reviewer and approval state;
- final public disclosure distinct from internal evidence.