Public To Have Say On BBC Standards

For the first time, licence fee payers are to have a say on standards which are suitable for BBC Programming, the BBC Trust has announced.
It has launched a public consultation on the revised draft of the BBC's Editorial Guidelines, which guide programme makers and other content producers on issues such as impartiality, accuracy, harm and offence, as well as covering war, religion, politics and children's issues.
The guidelines inform every editorial decision made within the BBC and independent production companies working for the corporation. It is also the framework against which complaints are considered.
Richard Tait, BBC Trustee and Chair of the Trust's Editorial Standards Committee, said: "The Trust's job is to represent licence fee payers - we know that they expect the BBC to set and meet the highest standards, and rightly so. The Editorial Guidelines exist to guide programme makers in making considered editorial decisions which balance freedom of expression with their responsibilities to the audience, contributors and others.
"Public acceptability is constantly changing, so it is right that we should reflect on the standards the BBC should be setting, as well as ask licence fee payers what they think when reviewing the guidelines.
"That's why we are actively seeking their views in this first ever consultation."
The guidelines are reviewed every five years, but this is the first time that they have been put out to consultation with the public. The consultation will conclude on December 24 2009.
The process of reviewing the guidelines started at the beginning of this year. The Trust asked the Executive to examine and update the guidelines in advance of formal consultation. The submissions to the consultation and independent research commissioned by the Trust will inform the review and, once approved, the new guidelines will come into effect in summer 2010. The existing guidelines will remain in place until this point.
(KMcA/BMcc)