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Editorial Policy Newsletter No.23

5 October 2009

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News

Sponsorship Guidance Revised

Sports Personality of the Year 2007 New guidance has been published on sponsorship of on-air BBC events. It follows the decision last year to end the commercial sponsorship of events such as Sports Personality of the Year.

Sponsorship can play an important role in enabling the BBC to stage ambitious cultural, music and performance events, and encourage and celebrate innovation, talent and personal achievement. However, in future, sponsorship of on air BBC events can only be accepted from non-commercial bodies and must not give the impression that the programme that covers the event is sponsored.

The new guidance can be read here .

Anyone who is planning to stage a sponsored BBC on air event must speak to Margaret Hill (Chief Adviser, Editorial Policy) and the relevant Divisional Director well in advance.

Election Night Map The Party Conferences mark the start of the new political season, which will culminate in a General Election.

When Polling Day is announced, formal Election Guidelines will be published covering the Election Period. But there are a number of issues that the BBC needs to consider increasingly from now on, to ensure we achieve due impartiality in our output.

In particular, we have an obligation from now to the election to be fair to all prospective candidates. We should take care over the repeated use of a small number of prospective candidates.

UK-wide output should demonstrate good awareness of the political diversity across the Nations of the UK. We need to ensure due impartiality in our treatment both of the main parties across the UK and those which have substantial support in just one Nation.

Further advice on the reporting of politics and public policy in the coming months, and the use of politicians in BBC output, is available from Ric Bailey (Chief Adviser, Politics).

The Editorial Guidelines on Politics and Public Policy are here .

Michael Jackson in Thriller Showing a clip from Michael Jackson's Thriller video on BBC One's Breakfast, just after 9am, drew a significant number of complaints from members of the audience - including several who were concerned it had upset pre-school age children.

The clip was shown to illustrate an interview with the video's director, John Landis.

In the past, Ofcom has upheld a complaint about the pre-watershed broadcast of Thriller on an Emap music video channel. On that occasion, (External) Ofcom commented on the sequence where Michael Jackson morphs into a werewolf (the scene shown on Breakfast ), and pointed to research suggesting that young children find such physical transformations particularly disturbing.

Despite its familiarity and landmark status, programme makers should bear in mind that Thriller has a BBFC 15 certificate.

New Guidelines: Have Your Say

Editorial Guidelines Book Cover As we reported in Newsletter No. 21 , the BBC's Editorial Guidelines are currently being revised for publication in 2010.

The first set of Guidelines was published around twenty years ago, distilling the best practice of generations of programme makers. It has been revised at roughly five-yearly intervals as producers have continued to find new solutions to fresh challenges.

So we're keen that today's users of the Editorial Guidelines have their say on the next edition.

From Monday October 12th , the proposed new version of the Guidelines will be available here (link to internal BBC site only), along with a summary of key changes and a feedback form. Anyone working at the BBC is invited to read the revision and submit any thoughts or comments in time for the new Editorial Guidelines to be finalised next spring.

The BBC Trust will be inviting licence fee payers to submit opinions on the proposed revision in a public consultation.

New Arrivals

The Krankies Editorial Policy has welcomed two new members of staff in recent weeks, to help the department meet the needs of in-house and independent producers.

Jane Fletcher has extensive experience as an Executive Producer, specializing in Entertainment, Factual Entertainment and major live events - together with experience of Entertainment Commissioning for the BBC. She has worked at the BBC, ITV and in Indies in both television production and commissioning. Jane replaces Paul Smith, advising on Entertainment, Comedy, Childrens and Drama.

Marc Williams has joined from the BBC's Political Research Unit as Special Assistant to David Jordan (Director, Editorial Policy and Standards).

Contact details for Jane, Marc and the rest of the Editorial Policy team are here .

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