Every four or five years the BBC revises its Editorial Guidelines; before 2005 they were called the Producers' Guidelines. The latest edition is launched today.

The BBC's Editorial Guidelines encapsulate the values and editorial standards every producer of BBC content is expected to follow. Since 2005 they have been formulated within the context of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code and, in addition, since 2006 they have been commissioned and signed off by the BBC Trust.

For the first time the guidelines have been subject to public consultation, under the auspices of the Trust.

Read on and comment at the About The BBC blog.

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What to cut? What to keep?

The government's dilemma is one we're chewing over across BBC News and this week we're working hard to help audiences understand the story and its implications on radio, TV and online - nowhere more than Newsbeat where our young audience is not only engaged with the story but also highly opinionated.

So we asked Comres to survey more than 1,000 18-to-24-year-olds to get their views.

Young voters, the survey says, think the government should take a hard line on benefits, slashing them to help plug Britain's £90bn deficit. It finds that 76% of young voters think unemployment benefits should be cut and 68% say that housing benefit needs to be reduced.

When it comes to public services that should be protected, 87% say the NHS, followed by 82% who pick schools; 81% select police and fire services.

The survey suggests they're prepared to see the government make the "tough choices" being discussed. Young voters favour spending cuts over tax rises by a large margin.

62% say there is a need to reduce spending - though most want the cuts to be made slowly to give the economy as much time to recover as possible.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, moves to increase university fees or introduce a graduate tax are only supported by 33% of 18-to-24-year-olds, with 64% against.

Policies to scrap quangos and freeze public-sector workers' pay if they earn more than £21,000 are also not widely supported. Apart from front-line services such as the NHS and schools, old-age pensions and defence spending emerge as the most popular to survive unscathed.

Other welfare payments plus new house building, overseas aid and transport are ear-marked for the deepest cuts.

We'll keep returning to our young voters to gauge their reactions: first to the government's plans and then further down the line when they bite. Will their views change or harden? It'll be interesting to see.

Rod McKenzie is editor of Newsbeat and 1Xtra News. Fieldwork for the survey took place from 28 September to 3 October 2010.

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I always think that impartiality is in our DNA - it's part of the BBC's genetic make-up.

Anyone who thinks differently doesn't really understand how the organisation works and how seriously we take issues around balance and impartiality.

That's why, for example, we've planned our coverage of the spending cuts so carefully - to make the choices facing the government clear to our audiences and ensuring we cover the "whys and wherefores" of the spending review. It's how we always approach our reporting - whatever the subject.

The licence fee is the public's money so people are clearly fully entitled to their opinion on our coverage. And if they want to criticise it, of course they can and indeed will do so. There was one such example in the Daily Mail yesterday. There'll always be people who express views about our coverage particularly at a sensitive time politically. That's part of the warp and weft of living in a democracy. Our job is to ensure we remain absolutely impartial and present the facts to our audiences - without following any agendas.

For the broad audience BBC News is as respected and as valued as it's ever been. At big significant news moments such as the General Election and for everyday news and analysis audiences turn to us in huge numbers to help them make sense of the world - both at home and abroad.

That's because our audiences trust us and our specialist journalists like Nick Robinson, Stephanie Flanders, Robert Peston, Hugh Pym and Mark Easton. When stories are complex, highly charged and politicised, audiences rely on our specialists to give them context, assess evidence and test opinions without fear or favour.

Our presenters take professional pride in holding the powerful to account through fair but tough questioning. All our journalists - on and off air - are acutely aware of their responsibility to be impartial. That's why, for example, we report the problems of the BBC as we would any other institution. And that's why our trust ratings remain so high. And in a healthy democracy our audiences would not want it any other way.

Helen Boaden is director of BBC News

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