Wikinews:Profanity


 * This is a proposed Wikinews guideline. Please feel free to make any changes you feel necessary, or discuss this on the talk page.

Words and images that might be considered offensive, profane, or obscene by other Wikinews readers should be used if omission would cause the article to be less informative, relevant, or accurate, and no suitable alternatives are available.

In original Wikinews articles, a profanity should either be spelled out completely, or unused; bowdlerization by replacing letters with dashes or asterisks ("f***" or "f---") should never be an option. When specifically referring to a source that did bowdlerize a quote, such a quote should be marked with " [ sic ] ".

One example where profanity would be essential occurred in 2004, when United States Vice President Dick Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy to "go fuck yourself", garnering wide media attention. Because the obscenity is central to the dispute, the article should use the obscenity. For reference, the Washington Post printed the obscenity.