Embargoes

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WARNING

Embargoed articles or the information within MUST NOT be used until the embargo has expired.

Items returned by the Content API may be marked as embargoed, this means that they contain sensitive information that cannot be published until the embargo has expired.

These items are mostly contained within the Create product but it is important to check for embargoes regardless of the product as there could be legal consequences for breaking an embargo.

Access to embargoes

Which customers have access to embargoed content is controlled by PA Media.

If you're allowed to take embargoed content from us then it will be enabled on your account and the items will appear automatically in your Content API responses.

If you believe you should have access to embargoed content, but don't see it in your Content API responses then please contact your account manager.

Query Parameter

In order to query Content API for items that are in a specific state of embargo, you can use the pubstatus query parameter.

For example this query will only return items from our create product that have no embargoed restrictions, by using the pubstatus value of usable:

curl \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "apikey: <API KEY>" \
  "https://content.api.pressassociation.io/v1/item/paservice:news/item?product=paproduct:create&pubstatus=usable"

Alternatively this query will only return items from our create product that have embargoed restrictions, by using the pubstatus value of withheld or privileged:

curl \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "apikey: <API KEY>" \
  "https://content.api.pressassociation.io/v1/item/paservice:news/item?product=paproduct:create&pubstatus=withheld&pubstatus=privileged"

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Default

By default no restriction is applied to pubstatus and, if your account has access to embargoes, you will receive a mix of embargoed and non-embargoed content in the response.

JSON

Embargoed items in the JSON response type will contain these metadata fields explaining that an item is embargoed.

NameDescription
pubstatusDetails the publication status of the item. The possible values are
- useable - No embargo restrictions.
- withheld - Under embargoed restrictions that can be seen by media and non-media customers.
- privileged - Under embargoed restrictions that can only be seen by media customers only.
embargoedContains the datetime of when the embargo expires.

This is usually in the timezone of UTC, but please make sure your parser interprets the timezone property correctly.

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Note

There are no paragraphs are added to the body fields to explain this content is embargoed.
You must check the metadata.

RSS / ATOM

Embargoed items in the RSS or ATOM response types contain a message at the start of the body explaining when the embargo expires for this content item.

For example this RSS response contains <p>This story is embargoed until 00:01 - 29 Jul 2020</p> as the first line of its content:encoded field.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0"
  xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
  xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
  xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"
  xmlns:opensearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
  xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
  xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
  xmlns:pa="http://api.pressassociation.io/mrss/"
  xmlns:snf="http://www.smartnews.be/snf/">
  <channel>
    <title>Press Association: Content API</title>
    <description>A collection of content items</description>
    <language>en</language>
    <link>https://content.api.pressassociation.io/v1/item?apikey=tx2rkyadav6gf4pvxjns6ekr&amp;pubstatus=privileged&amp;product=paproduct%3Acreate&amp;accept=rss</link>
    <atom:link href="https://content.api.pressassociation.io/v1/item?apikey=tx2rkyadav6gf4pvxjns6ekr&amp;pubstatus=privileged&amp;product=paproduct%3Acreate&amp;accept=rss" rel="self"/>
    <opensearch:itemsPerPage>20</opensearch:itemsPerPage>
    <opensearch:totalResults>1</opensearch:totalResults>
    <opensearch:startIndex>0</opensearch:startIndex>
    <snf:logo>
      <snf:url>http://logo.static.press.net/pa-logo-smartnews.png</snf:url>
    </snf:logo>
    <lastBuildDate>Mon, 08 Aug 2022 12:51:54 GMT</lastBuildDate>
    <item>
      <title>‘Snowball Earth’ may have been caused by drastic changes in incoming sunlight</title>
      <link>https://content.api.pressassociation.io/v1/item/b9aafefc-b33e-4834-abba-34f26e618ed2</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2020 18:30:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <description><![CDATA[<p>The findings raise concerns about human-induced global warming.</p>]]></description>
      <dcterms:abstract>The findings raise concerns about human-induced global warming.</dcterms:abstract>
      <dc:publisher>PA</dc:publisher>
      <dcterms:created>2020-07-28T18:30:26.000Z</dcterms:created>
      <dcterms:modified>2020-07-28T18:30:26.000Z</dcterms:modified>
      <dc:creator>By Nilima Marshall, PA Science Reporter</dc:creator>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://content.api.pressassociation.io/v1/item/b9aafefc-b33e-4834-abba-34f26e618ed2</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This story is embargoed until 00:01 - 29 Jul 2020</p><p>The Earth has experienced dramatic episodes of deep freezing at least twice in its 4.5-billion-year history – brought on by drastic changes in incoming sunlight, researchers believe.</p><p>These events, which scientists call “Snowball Earth”, are thought to have occurred around 700 million years ago, and may have paved the way for the Cambrian explosion of life, during which complex organisms began to diversify and spread across the planet more than 500 million years ago.</p><p>The scientists attribute these freeze-overs to a phenomenon known as “rate-induced glaciations”, where the level of solar radiation decreases very rapidly over a geologically short period of time.</p><p>Previous theories have suggested that Snowball Earth events were caused by weathering of the planet’s continents, such as a drop in carbon dioxide or solar radiation, that would have pushed the planet past a critical threshold.</p><p>But researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say solar radiation does not have to reach a certain threshold, where the level of sunlight falls below a certain level, to trigger an ice age, “as long as the decrease in incoming sunlight occurs faster than a critical rate”.</p><p>    While there is some uncertainty about what this critical rate would be, Constantin Arnscheidt, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, estimates the Earth would have to experience about a 2% drop in incoming sunlight over a period of about 10,000 years to tip into a global ice age, based on mathematical modelling.</p><p>He said: “It’s reasonable to assume past glaciations were induced by geologically quick changes to solar radiation.”</p><p>The researchers believe the darkening of the skies that triggered an ice age could have been caused by widespread volcanic eruptions ejecting aerosols into the atmosphere.</p><p>Another theory is that primitive algae may have evolved mechanisms that led to the formation of light-reflecting clouds, blocking the sun’s rays.</p><p>The scientists say the findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, raise concerns about anthropogenic, or human-induced, global warming.</p><p>Mr Arnscheidt said: “Even though humanity will not trigger a snowball glaciation on our current climate trajectory, the existence of such a ‘rate-induced tipping point’ at the global scale may still remain a cause for concern.</p><p>“For example, it teaches us that we should be wary of the speed at which we are modifying Earth’s climate, not just the magnitude of the change.</p><p>“There could be other such rate-induced tipping points that might be triggered by anthropogenic warming.</p><p>“Identifying these and constraining their critical rates is a worthwhile goal for further research.”</p>]]></content:encoded>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:paservice">Sci-Tech</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:paservice">Science</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:patopic">Science</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:pakeyword">Earth</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:paterritory">UK</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:tag">climate change</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:tag">Earth</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:tag">MIT</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:tag">Snowball Earth</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:subject:contributor">PA</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:content:profile">story</category>
      <category domain="urn:pa:content:type">composite</category>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

There is no additional metadata detailing the embargoed status.

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Timezone

Please note that the timezone for the embargo expiry timestamp is set to is Europe/London.

This means it will change between GMT & BST when the clocks change in the UK.

If you are accessing our content from outside the UK please convert this to your local time to avoid accidently breaking an embargo.