Embargo (press)
A blocking period (especially in the Anglo-Saxon or Francophone area as well as an embargo in German-speaking Switzerland ) is a temporary blocking period for news and information. Embargo periods are used when information should or must be made available to the media in advance in order to enable well-founded reporting, but at the same time to prevent premature publication. New book releases are also given to reviewers before the publication date . The secrecy associated with the blocking creates rumors and increases the market value of the message. Embargo periods are often set in the early morning hours of the following day in order not to put the print media at a disadvantage.
News or information marked with a blocking period should not be published by the media before this period. However, the media need not adhere to this. Embargo periods are generally subject to the free agreement between informants and the media and thus to the relationship of trust between them. A breach of the blocking period is therefore a breach of trust, which is, however, legally irrelevant unless there is a corresponding contractual agreement.
Often an editorial office that disregards blocking periods must expect to be excluded from advance information in the future.
In Germany, the press code provided for blocking periods to be observed until 2006 if this was objectively justified, for example with the text of a speech that had not yet been given or with information about an event that had not yet occurred. When the guidelines were amended on November 21, 2006, the corresponding guidelines were no longer applicable. The press council makes it the responsibility of the editors to observe blocking periods or not.