Resumen de United Kingdom: : BBC issues editorial guidelines for EU referendum
The BBC has issued editorial guidelines for the campaign period before the referendum on UK membership of the EU to be held on 23 June 2016. They apply in addition to the general editorial guidelines that cover issues such as impartiality and broadcasting during elections.
The referendum guidelines set out the application of the BBC’s obligation of impartiality in detail. This cannot be achieved by a mathematical formula or use of a stopwatch, but the objective should be to provide a “broad balance” between the two sides. Normally, in daily programmes this will mean a broad balance across each week of the campaign, although for one-off output due impartiality and a broad balance must be achieved within a single programme. Particular care should be taken to ensure that audiences know whom or which campaign a contributor is representing. Special care must be taken in broadcasting unrelated stories about individuals or organisations involved in the campaign, but here a broad balance may not be required, for example where a politician is involved in a newsworthy incident unrelated to the referendum. In debates and discussions on the referendum, neither side should be able to exercise a right of veto by declining to take part; in that case producers must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the audience is presented with material from both sides of the referendum debate. There is no requirement for balance between the political parties in discussing the referendum issue, although the general obligation for fair treatment, breadth of opinion and due impartiality remains.
