Breaking: Embargo

I remember once during Journalism class we were told this very important piece of news: Don’t break embargo.

It’s true. Never break embargo, because it’s all about honour and the reason you’re told a story is embargoed is because the company or organization doesn’t want you leaking out the story before a set time or date.

It sucks, yeah. And you can get angry about it too because it does seem unreasonable at times. But you still need to stick to it.

Why?

Because ethics, that’s why.

Because no matter how large or small your organization is, no matter if you’re well-known or people ask you where you’re from when they see you for the fifth time, you’ve got honour. 

And no matter how much you hate it or argue against it, you’ll still stick to it.

Which is why when I see that a media organisation has broken embargo, I feel slightly shocked. Some part of me knows I shouldn't be, but some part of me remembers that all-important rule I learned back in my first year of poly.

Don't break embargo.

Now I start to wonder: Is embargo really that important? I mean, if one organisation can break it, what's to stop others from doing the same thing, right? 

I think embargo's important, which is why I was slightly puzzled over how no one actually seemed to care when we found out that the organisation had broken it. 

Maybe embargo isn't all that important after all?

I'm still sticking to it. Hopefully I'm not too naive for thinking so.