Katyia
22 October 2012 12:27PM
Any proposal to carry out secret recording must be referred to Editorial Policy prior to approval by the relevant senior editorial figure in the division or, for independents, by the commissioning editor. The gathering and broadcast of secretly recorded material is always a two-stage process, requiring justification for any intrusion at each stage. So, the decision to gather is always taken separately from the decision to transmit
Secret recording must be justified by a clear public interest. It is a valuable tool for the BBC because it enables the capture of evidence or behaviour that our audiences would not otherwise see or hear. However, secret recording should normally be a method of last resort. The intrusion in the gathering and transmission of secret recording must be proportionate to the public interest it serves. Where there is a higher legitimate expectation of privacy, the BBC requires a higher public interest test to be achieved before recording secretly. Such situations include, but are not limited to:
- Secret recording in a private place where the public do not have access
- Secret recording of medical treatments
- Secret recording of identifiable people in grief or under extremes of stress both in public and semi-public places.
Secret recording may be used as a method of consumer, scientific or social research in the public interest, where no other methods could naturally capture the attitudes or behaviour in question. In such cases, although there may be no evidence against known individuals, there should normally be a prima facie indication that the behaviour to be researched exists in general.
The results of the research should be edited to provide a fair and accurate representation of the research. Consent should normally be obtained retrospectively from individuals or organisations to be included in our content, or their identities should be appropriately obscured. Any proposal in these circumstances to identify individuals or organisations without their consent should be referred to Editorial Policy. Anyone secretly recorded on the phone for comedy or entertainment purposes must give their consent before the call is broadcast
We must not go on "fishing expeditions", i.e. secret recording on private property in search of crime or anti-social behaviour by identifiable individuals, or a group, when there is no clear prima facie evidence against them of that behaviour
http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-privacy-practices-secret-recording/
hows this for an interesting topic suggestion - - - I mean that is very unclear - - - normally consent must be obtained except when the research is in the public interest - - - do people know that? films of them could be spliced into other films without their consent - - - something which I suspect happens alot - - - and does anyone have stories of footage being used for blackmail and bribery - - - or the use of public domain sexual material - - -
