R0050/2026-03-31/Q001/SRC04/E01¶
BBC Editorial Guidelines use informal source categories without formal tiering.
URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/
Extract¶
The BBC Editorial Guidelines address source evaluation through informal categories rather than formal tiers:
- General standard: "All BBC output must be well sourced, based on sound evidence, and corroborated."
- Third-party material: "Material supplied by third parties needs to be treated with appropriate caution, taking account of the reputation of the source."
- Agency reports: "Normally only rely on an agency report if it can be substantiated by a BBC correspondent or attributed to a reputable news agency."
- User-generated content: "Should not assume that the material is accurate and should take reasonable steps to seek verification."
- Internet sources: "Even apparently reliable sources may not always be accurate."
- Biased sources: "Must take care over how it uses material that may have been supplied by a member of a lobby group or anyone with a vested interest."
These represent informal source categories (agency, user-generated, internet, biased) with advisory guidance but no formal scoring, tiering, or structured evaluation criteria.
Relevance to Hypotheses¶
| Hypothesis | Relationship | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | N/A | BBC has categories but not formal structured elements |
| H2 | Supports | No formal scales, tiers, or structured assessment in BBC guidelines |
| H3 | Supports | BBC has recognizable source categories (an analogue to tiering) but leaves evaluation to editorial judgment |
Context¶
The BBC guidelines represent the principle-based approach typical of journalism. The source categories are advisory — they tell editors to exercise "appropriate caution" but do not define what that means in structured terms.