The Off the Record Agreement
Launch library · evergreen read
An agreement that something is off the record is a serious undertaking, not a casual phrase exchanged in passing, and it needs to be genuinely understood by both parties before it applies. Ambiguity here does real harm, since a subject who believed they were protected can be badly burned by a misunderstanding.
The safest practice is to clarify the terms explicitly whenever the phrase comes up: what exactly it covers, whether it applies to the whole remainder of the conversation or only to the specific point being made, and whether the information can be used without attribution even if not quoted directly.
Honouring an off the record agreement, once made, is close to an absolute obligation. Breaking it may serve a single story, but it damages something larger: the willingness of future subjects to trust that the same protection will hold for them. That trust, once broken, is rarely rebuilt with the same subject or with others watching closely.