BBC blogging policy
BBC is the world’s oldest public-service broadcaster, but it has also embraced the online world — and blogs — for several years now. For employees who want to blog on their own sites, BBC has recently revamped its blogging policy and published new guidelines which do not apply to employees who write about personal interests.
BBC’s position about blogs has recently evolved, as you can see by reading an article which is only six months old, Blogging and the BBC (by Torin Douglas, BBC media correspondent, October 26, 2005). At this time, Kevin Anderson, of BBC News Interactive, was in charge to write “a guide to blogs and blogging for journalists.”
“Blogs can sharpen our journalism, introduce us to new sources, widen our agenda and maintain our position as a trusted source,” he writes, in a discussion paper called BBC Blogs: News as conversation.
Now, these new guidelines have been published after a wide discussion with BBC bloggers and are available via one of them, Jem Stone. Here are the principles behind these guidelines.
Many bloggers, particularly in technical areas, use their personal blogs to discuss their BBC work in ways that benefit the BBC, and add to the “industry conversation.” These guidelines are not intended to restrict this, as long as confidential information is not revealed.
Blogs or websites which do not identify the blogger as a BBC employee, do not discuss the BBC and are purely about personal matters would normally fall outside these guidelines.
There are three sets of guidelines, for regular employees, for managers, and for journalists, for which impartiality is required.
Nothing should appear on their personal blogs which undermines the integrity or impartiality of the BBC. For example, news and current affairs people should not:
- advocate support for a particular political party
- express views for or against any policy which is a matter of current party political debate
- advocate any particular position on an issue of current public controversy or debate
The other guidelines are more traditional and will not stir any controversy.
Finally, if you want to read “official” blogs written by BBC employees and journalists, here is a link to the BBC Blog Network.
Sources: Jem Stone, BBC employee, on his Common Sense blog, May 5, 2006
