Reporting overseas elections
The principles of fairness and impartiality which underlie our coverage of UK elections should also inform our election reporting in other countries. When we report elections overseas we may need to take into account the circumstances under which the particular election is being held, especially where serious questions are raised about the openness or fairness of the electoral process.
Additional issues may arise when we are broadcasting to the actual country in which an election is taking place. We owe a special responsibility to audiences who are about to vote. We may need to consider the timing of the re-transmission on international services of programmes originally made for the UK audience. The closer to the election date the greater the need for care. If it is considered that a programme could have an undue and unfair influence on the election, then we should delay transmission until after polling.