According to Joe Coscarelli at New York Magazine, the AP recently sent out an email to its employees reminding them not to tweet breaking news before it’s been published. The email was sent after a number of AP staff were tweeting about fellow AP reporters being arrested at Occupy Wall Street protests.
Coscarelli wrote that the email said,
In relation to AP staff being taken into custody at the Occupy Wall Street story, we’ve had a breakdown in staff sticking to policies around social media and everyone needs to get with their folks now to tell them to knock it off.
The official AP staff guidelines for using social media states,
Don’t break news that we haven’t published, no matter the format.
Do you think AP staff should refrain from tweeting breaking news before it’s published?