In a long article dedicated to the UK broadcast industry, The Guardian reveals that "The BBC board of governors approved the strengthening of producer guidelines for journalists - including a new rule designed to prevent a repeat of the calamitous Radio 4 broadcast by Andrew Gilligan, in which he claimed the government had knowingly exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's weapons. In the new guidelines, reporters will be obliged to alert their department head if they do not intend to give the subject of the stories adequate time to respond to their allegations... In the new guidelines, journalists will be forced to refer upwards "if it is intended to broadcast an allegation in the public interest which we believe to be true, but where we do not propose to put the allegation to the persons or organisation concerned by the programme in time for a considered response before transmission in order to get the report into the public domain". There is also a mandatory referral if the reporter does not intend to alert a subject of an investigation as to the real purpose of their programme. These two rules are designed to reinforce the BBC's right to continue to make controversial investigative documentaries... The new guidelines also stipulate that programme makers also refer decisions to broadcast films where the central allegations are not put to third parties in time for a "considered response".

Source: MediaGuardian