This paper explores the philosophical foundations of risk communication, develops a protocol for ethical risk communication to be used by scientists, journalists and public relations practitioners, and applies the protocol to two cases of risk communication. We argue that the goals of risk communication are firstly to do no harm, and secondly to promote a public dialogue about risk. After outlining the philosophical foundation for these goals, we develop the protocol which will allow both the creators and the recipients of risk communication messages to evaluate their content. The protocol focuses on questions of accuracy, context, mobilizing information, and public environmental literacy.