No comment is a phrase used as a response to journalistic inquiries which the respondent does not wish to answer. Public figures may decline to comment on issues they are questioned or have nothing to say about the issue at the time. Officials not given authorization by their higher authority to speak to the media similarly may decline to comment.
No comment indicates that the speaker does not choose to say anything on the subject, and it is automatically invalidated if the speaker then comments or answers questions. It is not a request for the material to be considered off the record or otherwise kept confidential. If the speaker wishes to talk about the subject, but does not wish to be named as a source, then the speaker must obtain the journalist's explicit agreement in advance that the response is not to be used for attribution.
Read more about No Comment: Criticism, Notable Uses
Famous quotes containing the word comment:
“If I use the media, even with tricks, to publicise a black youth being shot in the back in Teaneck, New Jersey ... then I should be praised for it, and it’s more of a comment on them than me that it would take tricks to make them cover the loss of life.”
—Al, Rev. Sharpton (b. 1954)