Thomson Reuters employees are banned from using blogs for internal communication or for airing differences with colleagues or the company itself.

The new code of ethics for the merged company was unveiled last week (thanks to PaidContentUK for the link), and ruled that: ‘[I]t’s OK to mention Thomson Reuters in a personal blog’, but not to blog about non-public company information, customers or clients.

The document continues:

“Personal blogs should never be used for internal communications among fellow employees and you should not use a personal blog to air any differences with co-workers, Thomson Reuters or people or companies that we do business with.”

Blogging was just one of the many subjects covered by the 36-page document, which also banned workers from discussing Thomson Reuters stock or competitors in online chat rooms and from receiving client gifts.

The code also has a dedicated section on preventing laptop data theft, including point 5: “If you need to put your laptop down, try to put it in front of you, and not behind you or to your side.”