Submit a story

What do we need to turn your tip into a story?

A news tip needs to be more than a rumour or an opinion. To make a story from it, we will need evidence: usually either documents or witnesses. You may not have these things to hand, but they need to exist where we can get access to them. Also, the issue or problem you are identifying needs to be newsworthy. It needs to have some implication in the real world, and to affect a wide enough range of people to be interesting to our audience.

Contacting us using conventional methods

If confidentiality is not a concern, you can contact our editorial teams here:

Phone: +61 2 9906 9990

Email: newsdesk@afr.com

Confidential information

These methods are not necessarily secure from the Australian government's metadata collection regime, and some people have become concerned in recent times that contacting a journalist with a public interest disclosure might mean authorities can track them down now or in the future.

Below are a number of safer ways of contacting us and minimising your digital trail.

Postal mail

For paper, USB drives, or other media, mail delivered through the postal service is a secure means of communication. We recommend that you use a public mailbox, not a post office.

In person

Dropping documents in unsigned envelopes at our street address, with attention to a specific journalist or editorial team is another good way of delivering information.

Things to consider around anonymity

In order to remain as anonymous as possible, consider:

• Talking to an attorney, ideally face to face to better understand your options.
• Make new user accounts separate from the ones you normally use.
• Clean up or delete browsing history and other traceable behaviour.
• Keeping files on an encrypted USB stick.
• Using a separate computer or operating system.

A few things you should try to avoid

• Don't contact us from work. Most corporate and government networks log traffic.
• Don't email us, call us, or contact us on social media.
• Don't tell anyone that you're a source.