BBC Home


7 November 2009
Accessibility help
Text only

Editorial Guidelines logo

Editorial Guidelines logo

BBC Homepage

Editorial Guidelines Home
Editorial Guidelines in Full
Online Services Guidelines
A-Z Index
Section Index
The BBC's Editorial Values
Editorial Responsibility
Accuracy
Impartiality
Fairness, Contributors & Consent
Privacy
Crime & Anti-Social Behaviour
Harm & Offence
Children
Politics & Public Policy
War, Terror & Emergencies
Religion
Editorial Integrity & Independence
External Relationships
Interacting with our Audiences
The Law
Accountability
Guidance
Mandatory Referrals
Forms
Newsletter
Contact Editorial Policy
Research Reports
Compliance
How to use this site

Online Services Guidelines in Full

Editorial Integrity & Independence

• Introduction
• Links to external sites
• Criteria for linking to external sites or other content
• Factual accuracy
• Examples of appropriate linking to external sites
• Editorial checks
• Disclaimers
• Links to sites which do not share BBC editorial values
• Controversial content
• Undue prominence
• Automatically generated links
• References to BBC commercial channels, services & products
• Trails on bbc.co.uk for commercial products related to BBC programmes
• Sites for BBC commercial magazines
• On-Air Trails for BBC online services
• Use of commercial logos on BBC sites
• Outside providers of material
• Programme support material
• Programme support material for makeover programmes
• Programme support material for independent productions & co-productions
• Credits
• Production credits
• Placing of credits
• Photographs in credits
• Logos as credits
• Animations, movies & videos
• Credits & links
• Third party software for visitors to BBC sites
• Software downloads
• Logos & credits within software commissioned by the BBC

Introduction

The BBC's global reputation is based on its editorial integrity and independence. Our audiences need to be confident that our decisions are influenced neither by political or commercial pressures, nor by any personal interests. We must not undermine these values by any actions which could bring the BBC into disrepute. The outside activities of people working for the BBC, including presenters, must not improperly influence BBC content or corporate decision making.

The following clear principles apply to all BBC services:

• we must not endorse or appear to endorse any other organisation, its products, activities or services
• we should not give undue prominence to commercial products or services
• there must be no product placement
• we should ensure that credits are clearly editorially justified
• we must not unduly promote BBC or BBC related commercial products and services on our public service outlets
• there may be no sponsorship of any web page on any BBC publicly funded Internet service. Publicly funded BBC web pages may not carry advertising. The BBC's commercially funded sites may carry advertising and some limited sponsorship in accordance with the BBC's Online Guidelines: Commercial Services.

See Section 13: Editorial Integrity & Independence of the Editorial Guidelines.

< previous page  |  |  next page >