These Guidelines are designed to cover compliance issues and the political ‘rules' to be observed by all parties. While parties are responsible for the content of the broadcasts, they are required to observe the following guidelines, which have been agreed between the broadcasters and will be applied equally to all parties.
They are designed to reconcile the editorial standards of the broadcasters and their audiences' expectations with the freedom of political parties to convey their political messages, and to ensure that these are met on all outlets.
- All broadcasts must observe the law - for example, on copyright, libel, contempt, obscenity, incitement to racial hatred or violence.
- All broadcasts must comply with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, and the provisions of the BBC Editorial Guidelines, that relate to harm and offence (Chapter 8 of the BBC Editorial Guidelines) and fairness and privacy (Chapters 5 & 6 of the BBC Editorial Guidelines), having regard to the political context of the broadcast.
- Subject to the matters set out above, accuracy is the responsibility of the parties making the broadcasts.
- The party responsible for the broadcast will indemnify the broadcaster for all legal or regulatory actions resulting from the contents of the election broadcast.
- Impartiality is achieved over the series of PEBs as a whole. There is, of course, no obligation on the parties to achieve impartiality within each broadcast.
- An extract of recordings of the parliamentary proceedings of Parliament at Westminster , the National Assembly of Wales, the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly may be used only if it features a speech by a member of the party making the broadcast, and the member's consent has been obtained. The use of material featuring exchanges between the parties should not be included. Wide shots of the chambers of the National Assembly of Wales, Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly are allowed, but wide shots of Westminster are not.
- Extracts from party conference speeches of the party allocated the broadcast may be used and can be bought in the normal way from the broadcasters.
- Archive or news clips of members of any other political party should not be included. This applies to both visual and audio material alike. Undistorted stills are allowed.
- Where candidates are included and identified in a party election broadcast there must not be any oral or obvious visual reference made to their constituencies. (This does not apply in the European elections to Nations that are a single region - e.g. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
- No member of the public should be featured prominently in a broadcast in a manner that appears to support either a party and/or a political policy without that person's consent.
- Shots which include broadcasters in vision or in voice are not permissible.
- The use of actors in a broadcast must be made clear to the audience if there is any possibility that the audience could be confused or misled by their appearance. The same applies to reconstructions.
- No revenue-generating telephone numbers are to be used in a broadcast. Appeals for members of the audience to contact the party at the end of the broadcast by telephone, e-mail etc are allowed but direct appeals for funds as in, “Have your credit cards handy”, are not.
- PEBs which closely mimic the format of established programmes on any channel, particularly news programmes, run the risk of misleading the audience and therefore they must be clearly labelled throughout.
- Straight news footage featuring a party's own leader and politicians may be purchased from broadcasters in the usual way but clips which identify the programme in which they featured, on screen logos, theme music or the voice or face of a presenter/reporter will not be allowed. Nor will footage featuring politicians from other parties.
Format
Broadcasts should be delivered on digi-beta tapes in widescreen format (16x9 full height anamorphic). The sound can be in mono or stereo. Two digi-beta tapes should be delivered together with two VHS or DVD copies.
Duration
Broadcasts can be one of three lengths, 2'40”, 3'40” or 4'40”. The Broadcasters must be informed of the duration selection a minimum of 2 weeks in advance of the broadcast date.
Delivery
The tapes, transcripts and details of any music used must be delivered by 10am the day prior to transmission.
Broadcasts scheduled to be transmitted on a Monday must be delivered no later than noon the preceding Friday.
Broadcasts scheduled to be transmitted on a Bank Holiday must be delivered no later than noon of the preceding normal working day.
The full technical specifications for broadcasts on BBC television are available on the BBC website. (Note that the requirements for programmes delivered in Scotland are different to those delivered to London).
Radio Broadcasts
For technical specifications for broadcasts on BBC radio please see BBC Radio Resources website.
Radio broadcasts should be supplied on 2 CDs, and these must be data discs [CD or DVD] and NOT audio CDs.
