Crime mandatory referrals to Controller Editorial Policy
Content Producers must refer to Controller Editorial Policy any proposal to:
- interview a criminal active in or wanted in the UK.
- contact or interview escaped prisoners or people wanted by the police in the UK.
- grant anonymity to anyone seeking to evade UK law.
- enter a UK prison to interview a prisoner for broadcast without permission from the prison authorities.
- publish the name or picture of a paedophile or sex offender who has served a sentence and been released from prison but whose name has not been made public by the UK police.
- witness or record a specific and serious illegal activity.
- pay, promise to pay or make a payment in kind to criminals or former criminals, directly or through agents, for an interview or other contribution relating to their crimes. In general the same applies to their associates, who may include family, friends or colleagues.
- pay or promise to pay, a witness, or anyone who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness during active criminal proceedings or where proceedings are likely and foreseeable.
- pay people whose behaviour is either seriously anti-social or whose activities have attracted serious notoriety.
- hand over transmitted material in connection with litigation.
- play or hand over untransmitted rushes to a third party (excluding programme previews).
- employ someone known to have a criminal record or background of illegal activity to work on a BBC investigation into crime or serious anti-social behaviour. This includes editorial members of the production team and undercover operatives.
- approve a job application by an undercover operative working on a BBC investigation.