All of the C4 speakers were keen to stress that these guidelines act as an accompaniment to the Independent Producer Handbook, so please click on the link to that at the bottom of this page for more comprehensive info.

Mark Lambert, (C4 Senior Lawyer, Legal & Compliance)

Even RECORDING some footage, whether it’s transmitted or not, can be seen as infringement of privacy.

Any potential infringement of the privacy laws must be WARRANTED – you must justify it by disclosing information that affects the public.

We all have a right of privacy but this DIFFERS FOR ORDINARY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC AND CELEBRITIES or people in the public eye – Mark gave an example of exposing hypocrisy amongst politicians who make a stand on public values.

When it’s PRIVATE IN PUBLIC – Mark gave the example of CCTV footage of someone trying to commit suicide in a town square.  This was in a public place, but a private situation, so it would not be acceptable to transmit footage like this.

SECRET FILMING – anyone planning to film secretly for C4 must make a SECRET FILMING APPLICATION to C4.  (There are also notes in the Producers Handbook on this).  Permission is granted when the footage is necessary to the credibility of a story, and if the action in it could happen again.

DATA PROTECTION – use information fairly and lawfully and KEEP IT SECURE.  Shred documents containing personal data and encrypt files.  Pretend it’s your own personal data or treat it like MONEY – don’t lose it or get it stolen.

Refer privacy issues EARLY to Comm Ed and the Legal & Compliance Dept.

Leonie Jameson (Producer, Wildcard Production)

PRIOR PUBLICATION does NOT justify infringement of privacy.

Every person in a controversial story should CORROBORATE THE EVIDENCE used in a film.

Leonie cited a biography of Moses which involved filming people in public or semi-public, at private moments. When filming in a Church for example, notices of filming must be posted, as in any enclosed public building.

SUFFERING AND DISTRESS

Leonie talked about an interview with Gerry Adams, to be included in a film about a man whose wife was killed by an IRA bomb.  The programme lawyer advised the production team to tell the widower that the footage of Gerry Adams would be used in advance of TX.  In the same film it had been intended to include footage of an interview with the victim’s mother, given at the time of the bombing. It was decided to omit this footage, although it had been in the public domain, because it intruded into private grief and the retransmission would have caused distress.

Tamara Abood (C4 Commissioning Editor, News & Current Affairs).

When filming in secret you must CONVINCE C4 that PUBLIC INTEREST JUSTIFIES THE INVASION OF PRIVACY.

You need to SHOW EVIDENCE OF WRONG-DOING, explain why you can’t obtain the footage conventionally, and show the public interest justification.  You can’t go on a “fishing expedition”, you must have sufficient grounds or evidence before you start.

When filming a series in schools, the decision was made to only use footage of kids talking about their school lives, not homelife.

CONSENT FORMS – it may be necessary to agree the wording of these with the Commissioner.  Be aware you may be sowing the seeds of an Ofcom ruling if these are misleading.  The paper trail in your programme-making is very important as an investigation may look at transcripts of interviews.

OBTAIN RELEASE FORMS IN A PUBLIC AREA IF THE SITUATION IS SENSITIVE – i.e. in a church, a hospital, a school.

Note that PRIVACY LAWS VARY ABROAD – essentially the restrictions depend on the jurisdiction of the country of broadcast, but France, for example, has stricter privacy laws – it’s ok for UK broadcast but you will need to check if your programme is being distributed overseas.

At what point is privacy invaded?  RX or TX?  It’s probably ok to film something and then check afterwards, but not always.  OFCOM states that a breach of privacy can be committed in the filming itself, so it’s worth talking to the legal team early on about your methods and approach in notebooks too.

Channel 4 & 5 Handbook : http://www.independentproducerhandbook.co.uk/

Ofcom guidelines: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/

BBC Editorial Guidelines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/

If you would like to attend the next Channel 4 Editorial Ethics Masterclass on October 6th from 9:30am – 4:30pm please email us through the site.

On Thursday 22^nd April Channel 4 gave a day-long Editorial Ethics Masterclass for researchers, APs, PDs, PMs, SPs and the odd Exec, with the aim of sharing best practice and giving a grounding in ethics to independent producers and freelancers.  It was Chaired by Peter Dale, with Julian Bellamy kicking off proceedings.  Here is some of the information I took away from it, and there are links to C4’s independent producer handbook, the Ofcom guidelines and the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines at the end.  Channel 4 are keen to suggest that the notes here are meant as a complement to the Independent Producer Handbook, not a replacement for it, so please do read the good book.

Part One : TRUST

Kevin Sutcliffe (C4 Deputy Head of News & Current Affairs) spoke as the voice of dogged experience on Ofcom rulings and being taken to court by contributors.  His main points were to conduct yourself responsibly from the outset of a production in any form of CORRESPONDENCE – from initial calls, to letters, emails and notebooks.  In an investigation any of this can be called and used as evidence so be careful how you represent yourself, your company and your broadcaster : “All documents continue to exist, they can be found and investigated”.

Sutcliffe said that a PITCH document which contains biased content is likely to stop a Commissioning Editor from seeing you as it reflects that you are not likely to be fair-minded in your programme-making.  C4 he said wants pitch docs which are modulated and fair, with caveats.

Be mindful of how you are representing yourself and C4 in the DEVELOPMENT PERIOD, and how you reflect back to C4 about your CONTRIBUTORS.  When approaching contributors, producers have a responsibility to fairly reflect the way a film is described, and efforts should be made to ensure that emails / letters being sent out by different team members to different contributors are consistent in their content.

In everything your HOUSEKEEPING should be methodical.  In the event of an investigation everything on a production can be scrutinised, from your notebooks to your rushes.  When you are under pressure from a more senior team member to deliver on a particular storyline, it’s worth keeping in the back of your mind that in the event of an investigation it’s your interview technique and handling of contributors that will be analysed in the rushes, so the buck will stop with you.

The mantra for the day was unquestionably “IF IN DOUBT REFER UP” as soon as possible, through your Exec to the Comm Ed and / or a C4 lawyer.  C4 has a duty lawyer on call at all times through the C4 switchboard.

Hamish Thomson (C4 Lawyer, Legal & Compliance) stressed that producers must update participants if and when the remit of a programme changes.  (He also spoke on defamation which I’ll cover elsewhere).  Participants should be made aware of who they’re juxtaposed against in the film as this could affect INFORMED CONSENT.

TRUST / INFORMED CONSENT – QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:

If you don’t feel that a contributor is giving a truly informed consent, ask yourself what don’t they know, and why don’t they know it?

Have you edited the material fairly? Have you distorted views? Changed the sequence of events?

Does the programme make a criticism of anyone? If people are criticized in your film then they most probably will be owed a right of reply.

Secret filming and doorstepping – read the producers guidelines below and seek advice at the earliest opportunity.

You have a responsibility of trust both to the contributors in your show, and to the viewers.  The viewers will trust that a programme will not be faked, so refer up if in any doubt. In making any programme you should read the Viewer Trust Guidelines, section 7A of the Producer Handbook.

Katie Bailiff (Head of Programmes, Century Films) said to ask yourself as a safety check “What might the tabloid headline be if things go wrong on a production?”

INFORMED CONSENT : beware of a programme set up by someone else – you can never discuss the nature of a programme too many times with contributors.

FACT CHECK AS YOU GO : if you are making a programme in which contributors refer to other indentifiable characters, you are going to need to fact check with all of these people to avoid defamation.  One tip is to make a family tree of your contributor’s family so you can fact check with people if they have been mentioned.  Keep checking your facts and access, as “assumption is the mother of all cock-ups”.

ON CAMERA CONSENT : this should include a description from the programme-maker of what the programme is whilst the contributor listens, in addition to the contributor’s verbal consent.

Handling a VIEWING WITH CONTRIBS PRE-TX :  ALWAYS check this your Comm Ed before it happens, as pre-TX viewings only usually happen in exceptional circumstances.  Safeguard the editorial control of your film by thanking the contributors for coming along to watch and “pick up on factual inaccuracies”.  The editorial control of the film always remains with the broadcaster.

COMING SOON: PRIVACY

Channel 4 & 5 Handbook : http://www.independentproducerhandbook.co.uk/

Ofcom guidelines: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/

BBC Editorial Guidelines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/

if you want to attend the next Channel 4 Editorial Ethics day then please reply to the thread on the Media Parents watercooler: http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/forum/