The Chatham House Rule is About Speaking Up and Keeping Silent

Jules in Washington, D.C., is puzzled when a speaker at a meeting says the gathering will be covered by Chatham House Rules. Correctly said there’s just one Chatham House Rule, and it’s named after Chatham House, a think tank and research institute in London, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In order to encourage frank, creative conversation, Chatham House adopted a rule under which participants in a meeting are free to use information received there, but the identity of the speaker and their organizational affiliation must remain confidential. This is part of a complete episode.