Guidelines
Section 1: The BBC's Editorial Values
Introduction
1.1
Audiences are at the heart of everything we do.
We are committed to giving them high-quality, original and at times challenging output. Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation.
Equally, we must give our audiences content made to the highest editorial and ethical standards. Their trust depends on it.
We must therefore balance our presumption of freedom of expression with our responsibilities, for example to respect privacy, to be fair, to avoid unjustifiable offence and to provide appropriate protection for our audiences from harm.
(Note: The Human Rights Act 1998 recognises the right to freedom of expression, which includes the audience’s right to receive creative material, information and ideas without interference, subject to restrictions in law. It also recognises the right to private and family life and to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.)
We seek to uphold the BBC's Editorial Values in all we do. They embody our freedoms and responsibilities and, like the Editorial Guidelines, apply to all our content, whether it is made by the BBC itself or by an independent company working for the BBC, and whether it is made for radio, television, online, mobile devices, interactive services or the printed word. What follows are challenging requirements, but they are essential to everything we do.
