Ethics and Regulations

With radio producers have to be careful what is broadcast out; more so for public radio. On the BBC's website, it has a section on the Editorial Guidelines.
When shows are broadcast, the shows editors have to take into consideration of anything that could cause harm or offence to the audience, or could invade anyones privacy and things like that.

Section 7 - Privacy

Children & Vulnerable People - 7.4.6
We should pay particular attention to the expectations of privacy of people under 16 and those who are vulnerable.  When children are to be featured in our output in a way that would infringe a legitimate expectation of privacy, we should normally gain their informed consent (wherever possible) and the informed consent of a parent, legal guardian or other person of 18 or over acting in loco parentis.  Featuring vulnerable people may also require the informed consent of a responsible person of 18 or over.

Third Parties - 7.4.7
The privacy of an individual may be infringed by content that reveals private personal information about them, even if they are not contributing to the programme or directly included in it.  When such information is not already in the public domain (or was placed there only by the intrusive actions of others), the relevant individuals will normally need to give informed consent to its inclusion in our output, unless there is a public interest that outweighs their expectations of privacy.

Materials from Social Media - 7.4.8
Although material, especially pictures and videos, on third party social media and other websites where the public have ready access may be considered to have been placed in the public domain, re-use by the BBC will usually bring it to a much wider audience.  We should consider the impact of our re-use, particularly when in connection with tragic or distressing events.  There are also copyright considerations.

Section 13 - Harm and Offence

13.4.13 - Archive material that is made available, re-used or reversioned must take account of the requirements of the Editorial Guidelines on Harm and Offence in force at the time it is made available.  Consideration should be given to the following:

• Changes in public attitudes to potentially offensive material, including nudity, language, portrayal, alcohol, illegal drug use and smoking

• Any change in, for example, timeslot or channel, which would have a material effect on audience expectations

• The way that many people browse the internet often by following links from search engines or coming across BBC material that has been embedded on other sites, means that we cannot presume that online users are always prepared for the material they find.  They may not immediately realise that the content is archive, possibly increasing the risk of offence.

When archive material would not normally be broadcast by the BBC today because standards or attitudes have changed, there may be reasons to make it available now because, for example, it is of historical or cultural interest.  However, the material should be appropriately scheduled and/or signposted and it should be clear to the audience that it is not contemporary.

Section 5 - The Agreement accompanying the BBC Charter requires us to apply "generally accepted standards so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion of offensive and harmful material". The understanding of what constitutes 'generally accepted standards' will evolve over time and will be informed by relevant research.  Applying 'generally accepted standards' is a matter of judgement, taking account of the content, the context in which it appears and editorial justification.

Context includes, but is not confined to:

• the surrounding editorial material

• the service on which the content is available

• the time at which it is available

• other programmes or content that are available around the programme or content concerned

• the likely size and composition of the potential audience and likely expectation of the audience

• the harm or offence likely to be caused by the inclusion of the particular content in output generally, or in output of a particular nature or description

• the extent to which the nature of the content can be brought to the attention of the potential audience, for example, by signposting and content information

• the effect of the content on audiences who may come across it unawares.

When making our judgements, these factors will not necessarily carry equal weight.

For new series on television and radio (or when existing series change channels) where content may raise issues of generally accepted standards, there should normally be a discussion early in the production process with the commissioning executive and the production team, including presenters and performers, to establish parameters of tone and content appropriate to the platform, context and slot.  A returning series which has established expectations of strong language and content should have a similar discussion before the start of each run.

Those planning online content should also consider whether there will be issues of generally accepted standards and determine, early in the process, whether the content is likely to appeal to a significant proportion of children or younger people and select material appropriately.

For the purposes of the Editorial Guidelines and unless stated otherwise, a child is someone under the age of 15 years.  Young people are those aged 15, 16 and 17.  It should be noted that these are not legal definitions.