BBC Home


24 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

Links to external sites

Part of the BBC's role is to act as a Trusted Guide on the web. When producers are creating content on a BBC site, they should consider which external websites it may be editorially justifiable to link to.

Editorial justification for linking to external sites

Producers may wish to offer links to external sites for a number of reasons, including:

• for further relevant information
• for further background information or other key source material
• for useful practical information
• for further informed comment.

A link must never be included on the public service site or within the editorial content of a commercial site, in return for cash, services or any other consideration in kind.

All links on the BBC public service site or on the editorial pages of a commercial site must be editorially justifiable.

See below for links and credits .

< previous page  |  |  next page >