In this series, NPR takes readers behind the news and explains how we do our journalism. Here, Meghan Ashford-Grooms, an editor on the standards team, describes how NPR thinks about unnamed sources.
How are the Trump administration's layoffs affecting federal agencies? What impact did the U.S. bombing of Iran have on its nuclear facilities? What is it like to be a Ukrainian soldier fighting in the war with Russia?
Those are all questions that journalists at NPR, and elsewhere, have relied on anonymous sources — people who do not want their names used in a story — to try to answer.
So, how does NPR decide when to allow sources to go unnamed? And why?
NPR's strong preference is for the people who give our journalists information to be "on the record" — meaning they agree to be named as sources in our stories.
But sometimes people with vital information are afraid they risk being fired from their jobs or being jailed for speaking to a reporter. In other cases, someone might want to share details of a traumatic or sensitive experience they had — a sexual assault or a difficult medical procedure — but want to avoid the stigma that being publicly identified could bring.
In those situations, NPR considers granting the source anonymity. NPR uses information from anonymous sources to tell important stories that otherwise would go unreported. And only specific senior editors can sign off on their use.
When deciding whether to OK a request for anonymity, these editors strive to balance NPR's commitment to transparency — that is, telling our audiences where we get our information — against the harm a source faces for speaking to us. One way they do that is by vetting the source with the story's producers, reporters and editors to answer several important questions:
- Is the source's information or perspective important for the public to know? And is this source the only way for the reporter to get it?
- Is the source credible and reliable? Are they who they say they are, and are they in a position to know what they say they know?
- Do they face consequences that could negatively affect their life or their livelihood?
Only if the request meets the criteria above is anonymity granted.
If NPR does allow an anonymous source to be used, we provide a clear, specific reason — in the story — for allowing the person to go unnamed. We also aim to tell our listeners and readers as much as we can about the unnamed source without including details that could make them identifiable. That language might look like this: "according to a senior State Department official who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media." Or like this: "The woman, who lives in Arizona, asked that NPR not use her name because she is in the U.S. without legal status and fears being deported."
In some cases, a source will agree to allow NPR to refer to them by their first or middle name, or even by one of their initials. Those sources go through the same vetting process as those who don't want any part of their name used.
One thing that our readers and listeners won't find in an NPR story is pseudonyms, because those are made up and we want to report only facts.
Here are some recent stories that highlight NPR's approach to anonymous sources:
- Trump says early report on damage to Iran's nuclear program was inconclusive
- North Koreans fighting for Russia against Ukraine have grown skilled in drone warfare
- Dozens of USAID contracts were canceled last weekend. Here's what happened
And more information is in NPR's ethics handbook, available online at npr.org/ethics.
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