Home | Impartiality | Accuracy | Fairness | Respect | Independence

	Introduction   Monitoring Iraq: Brian Rotheray   Reporting first-hand: Kate Adie   Getting the facts in Colombia: Catalina Esparza   Checking contributors: Beatrice Murail   Statistics in India: Sanjeev Srivastava   Preventing mistakes in Iran: Jim Muir   Polls in the World Cup: Luis Restrepo   Running news agency reports   Using archive material   Advertising for contributors   Staging events and reconstructions		Introduction "A reporter should hold to a central principle of being a first-hand witness. Press conferences and official statements may be useful but they are no substitute for raw facts." Kate Adie, the BBC's former chief news correspondent. Inside BBC Journalism: Accuracy and Truth looks at how journalists at the BBC aim to get their facts right. In this section, our journalists reflect on a few of the dilemmas they face when applying the Editorial Guidelines - our handbook to good journalism - to accurate reporting. In this series of reports from Iraq, Iran, India and Colombia, they discuss the importance of being a first-hand witness - i.e. gathering information by being there or by talking to those who were. They also look at checking facts and contributors, correcting mistakes, and using archive material and agencies - including BBC Monitoring. BBC programmes should be accurate and truthful. But accuracy is often more than merely a question of getting the facts right. It's important to weigh all relevant information to get at the truth of what is reported or described. Related links: The BBC's Editorial Guidelines The BBC's Values, Standards and Principles (PDF file) About the BBC BBC Monitoring

	^^Back to top	<< Back to Home