General
The off-air activities of our editorial staff and presenters should not undermine the public's perception of the impartiality, integrity and objectivity of the BBC.
The BBC's Conflicts of Interest Guidelines state the BBC's policy in this area and include advice on maintaining impartiality; declaring conflicts of interest; acceptability of outside commitments; political activities; commercial, business and financial interests; personal benefits and commercial advertising.
The BBC Conflicts of Interest Guidelines provide advice for staff and freelances working in all genres across all BBC Divisions. This note specifically provides additional guidance for those working in news and current affairs areas where the BBC's reputation for impartiality is crucial and where there are particular sensitivities about off-air activities. Factual and topical programmes which are not primarily related to news and current affairs output are not specifically covered by this guidance note. Advice for these programmes is found in the general BBC Conflicts of Interest Guidelines which apply to all output areas across the BBC.
This guidance note gives additional specific advice for news and current affairs areas on:-
- Letters to the press
- Writing for external publications
- Writing books
- Public Speaking
- Chairing conferences
- Media training