|
(Continued from overleaf)
3.2(ii) Editorialising
The avoidance of editorialising on the part of licensees is integral to the preservation of due impartiality in the service they provide. So while individual contributors may be commissioned to broadcast personal view programmes on controversial matters covered by the Act, licensees may not use programmes to put forward their own views on such matters.
The Act places the additional duty on the ITC to do what it can to secure the exclusion of the licensee's views and opinions on controversial matters other than the provision of programme services.
If, in a programme included in a licensed service, a director or officer of a licensee does express an opinion on a controversial matter other than the provision of programme services, it must be in a context which makes clear that the opinion expressed is not that of the licensee.
Speeches in Parliament are exempt from this provision.
3.3 Impartiality over time
There are times when licensees will need to ensure that the principal opposing viewpoints are reflected in a single programme or programme item, either because it is not likely that the licensee will soon return to the subject, or because the issues involved are of current and active controversy. At other times, a narrower range of views may be appropriate within individual programmes. The ITC recognises that such issues call for editorial judgement based on the particular circumstances and that an impartial programme service does not necessarily have to ensure that in a single programme, or programme item, all sides have an opportunity to speak.
3.3(i) The 'series' provision
The Broadcasting Act's requirements about impartiality allow a series of programmes to be considered as a whole. For this purpose, the ITC defines a series as more than one programme broadcast in the same service, each one of which is clearly linked to the other(s) and which deal with the same or related issues.
It is not sufficient to claim that programmes on other channels or other media will ensure that opposing views will be heard.
Some series consist of programmes broadcast at regular intervals under the same title, but which may deal with widely disparate issues from one edition to the next. In this case, each programme should normally aim to be impartial in itself. Alternatively, producers may choose to deal with the same subject over two or more programmes or, for instance, offer separate in-depth interviews to the leaders of political parties and in this way achieve impartiality over time.
The intention to achieve impartiality in this way should be planned in advance and, wherever practicable, made clear to viewers.
3.4 Programme content: 'major matters'
The Act requires the Code to take particular account of the impartiality due to major matters of political or industrial controversy or relating to current public policy.
What is a major matter will vary according to the current public and political agenda, whether national or regional. It would in most circumstances include political or industrial issues of national importance, such as a nationwide strike or significant legislation currently passing through Parliament. For licensees serving a regional audience, it would also include issues of comparable importance within their region. Clearly, a regional newsroom will have a different set of priorities from that of a network programme serving the nation as a whole.
In dealing with major matters of controversy, licensees must ensure that justice is done to a full range of significant views and perspectives during the period in which the controversy is active.
The treatment of major matters should not obscure the fact that due impartiality is required on all matters of political or industrial controversy or current public policy. The ways in which this may be achieved in relation to different programme types is dealt with in the following sections.
3.5 News
In addition to the general requirements relating to matters of political or industrial controversy or current public policy, the Act requires that any news, given in whatever form, must be presented with due accuracy and impartiality.
Reporting should be dispassionate and news judgements based on the need to give viewers an even-handed account of events. In reporting on matters of industrial or political controversy, the main differing views on the matter should be given their due weight in the period during which the controversy is active. Editorial discretion will determine whether a range of conflicting views is included within a single news item or whether it is acceptable to spread them over a series of bulletins.
3.6 Personal view programmes
Programmes in which an individual contributor is given the opportunity to put forward his or her own views have a valuable place in the schedules. They are, however, subject to specific safeguards in order to ensure compliance with the general provisions relating to due impartiality.
The safeguards, which apply to all personal view programmes on controversial matters covered in the Act, are as follows:
(a) Each programme must be clearly identified as giving a personal view both in advance announcements and at the start of the programme itself.
(b) Facts must be respected, and licensees have an obligation to do what they can to ensure that the opinions expressed, however partial, do not rest upon false evidence.
(c) A suitable opportunity for response to the programme should be provided, where appropriate, for example in a right to reply programme or in a pre-arranged discussion programme.
|
|
