Online voting
On BBC websites which may relate to political or public policy issues, we must take care that online expressions of opinion are not translated into anything that could be construed either as an accurate representation of public opinion as a whole, or as the BBC's opinion.
Any summary of online voting or expression of opinion should:
- not be called a poll.
- make it absolutely clear that the results have no wider significance and represent only the views of the audience at that time.
Provided this is done explicitly and the numbers of the audience responding is reported at the same time, results of online votes may be expressed in percentages.
If the vote is to be about a political or controversial public policy issue it must be referred to Chief Adviser Politics or in the case of a website in a language other than English, to the relevant World Service Head of Region or National Controller, who may also consult Chief Adviser Politics.