The BBC has announced a public consultation to which it is possible to contribute until December 19th2024.
“The BBC has opened a consultation on a revised draft of the Editorial Guidelines. These set the editorial standards for the BBC and apply to everyone who works or produces output for the BBC. The guidelines cover a range of topics including impartiality, accuracy, fairness and privacy. The guidelines also reflect the Ofcom Broadcasting Code but go further than the Code, for example in the application of due accuracy and due impartiality.
The BBC periodically reviews the guidelines to ensure they keep pace with legal, editorial, and technical changes, as well as changes in audience habits and attitudes. These reviews take place approximately every four to five years. The current Editorial Guidelines were published in 2019. […]
The BBC Board has approved for consultation the version published here and will take into account views expressed in the consultation before finalising and publishing the guidelines.”
The relevant consultation documents, including instructions on how to make a submission, can be found here.
Among the items of particular interest are changes to the guidelines concerning contributors’ affiliations (page 11) – which the BBC currently regularly ignores – and to the guidelines concerning protests and demonstrations (p13).
Notably, the amendments proposed to Section 12 – formerly titled ‘War, terror and emergencies’ – do not include any change (p202) concerning the BBC’s use of the term terror only when attributable.
