BBC Issues Guiding Principles of Impartiality

BBC has just issued what they term are the 12 guiding principles of impartiality. They are:

1. Impartiality is and should remain the hallmark of the BBC as the leading provider of information and entertainment in the United Kingdom, and as a pre-eminent broadcaster internationally. It is a legal requirement, but it should also be a source of pride.


2. Impartiality is an essential part of the BBC's contract with its audience, which owns and funds the BBC. Because of that, the audience itself will often be a factor in determining impartiality.


3. Impartiality must continue to be applied to matters of party political or industrial controversy. But in today's more diverse political, social and cultural landscape, it requires a wider and deeper application.


4. Impartiality involves breadth of view, and can be breached by omission. It is not necessarily to be found on the centre ground.


5. Impartiality is no excuse for insipid programming. It allows room for fair-minded, evidence-based judgments by senior journalists and documentary-makers, and for controversial, passionate and polemical arguments by contributors and writers.


6. Impartiality applies across all BBC platforms and all types of programme. No genre is exempt. But the way it is applied and assessed will vary in different genres.


7. Impartiality is most obviously at risk in areas of sharp public controversy. But there is a less visible risk, demanding particular vigilance, when programmes purport to reflect a consensus for "the common good", or become involved with campaigns.


8. Impartiality is often not easy. There is no template of wisdom which will eliminate fierce internal debate over difficult dilemmas. But the BBC's journalistic expertise is an invaluable resource for all departments to draw on.


9. Impartiality can often be affected by the stance and experience of programme-makers, who need constantly to examine and challenge their own assumptions.


10. Impartiality requires the BBC to examine its own institutional values, and to assess the effect they have on its audiences.


11. Impartiality is a process, about which the BBC should be honest and transparent with its audience: this should permit greater boldness in its programming decisions. But impartiality can never be fully achieved to everyone's satisfaction: the BBC should not be defensive about this but ready to acknowledge and correct significant breaches as and when they occur.


12. Impartiality is required of everyone involved in output. It applies as much to the most junior researcher as it does to the director-general. But editors and executive producers must give a strong lead to their teams. They must ensure that the impartiality process begins at the conception of a programme and lasts throughout production: if left until the approval stage, it is usually too late.


The report, From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel: Safeguarding Impartiality in the 21st Century, together with appendices including audience research and other background material, is available in full at www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust.