Guidance

Last updated: October 2010

This guidance note should be considered in conjunction with the following Editorial Guidelines:

• Reporting Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour
  See Editorial Guidelines Section 8 Reporting Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour
• Privacy
  See Editorial Guidelines Section 7 Privacy
• Fairness, Contributors and Consent
  See Editorial Guidelines Section 6 Fairness, Contributors and Consent

• Set ups and stunts that combine investigation with factual entertainment should be editorially justified by the wrongdoing or other behaviour they expose - not simply for entertainment.

• The factual entertainment approach to investigative journalism needs to be considered on a case by case basis; the fact a particular technique has been utilised on one programme does not mean it will necessarily be appropriate for another.

• Production teams should keep in mind and work within the Editorial Guidelines on doorstepping when using set-ups as a means of getting answers to allegations of wrongdoing.

• Production teams should keep in mind the laws relating to trespass, and normally leave private land or property when asked to do by the legal occupier.

• If it is intended to secretly film a set-up or stunt and it is unlikely the subject of the filming would give retrospective consent, the secret filming should be justified by the public interest it serves.

• Any deception should be in proportion to the wrongdoing or other behaviour under scrutiny and should not be solely for entertainment.