Payments
The BBC does not normally make payments, promise to make payments or make payments in kind, whether directly or indirectly, to criminals, or generally to former criminals, who are simply talking about their crimes. In general the same should apply to families or relatives of criminals or former criminals. This is to protect our reputation, the credibility of our interviewees and sources, the integrity of the judicial process, as well as respecting the sensitivities of the victims of crime.
Payment of a fee will only be approved for a contribution of remarkable importance with a clear public interest which could not be obtained without payment. In such cases, only actual expenditure or loss of earnings necessarily incurred during the making of a programme contribution will normally be reimbursed.
Any proposal to pay criminals, former criminals, their families and their associates, or witnesses to a trial before a verdict has been reached must be referred through a senior editorial figure or for Independents through the commissioning editor to Controller Editorial Policy.
Witnesses, or anyone who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness during active criminal proceedings, must not be paid, or promise of payment made, directly or indirectly, for their story. Nor should any payment be suggested or made dependent on the outcome of the trial. Only actual expenditure or loss of earnings necessarily incurred during the making of a contribution may be reimbursed.
People who might reasonably be expected to be witnesses where criminal proceedings are likely and foreseeable should not be paid unless there is a clear public interest, such as investigating crime or serious wrong doing, and the payment is necessary to elicit the information. Where such a payment is made it will be appropriate to disclose the payment to both defence and prosecution if the person becomes a witness in any subsequent trial.
People whose behaviour is either seriously anti-social or whose activities have attracted such notoriety must not normally be paid for a contribution if such a payment would be inappropriate. Any exception must be referred through a senior editorial figure or for Independents through the commissioning editor to Controller Editorial Policy.