Document A.
B.B.C. NEWS AND TALKS.

NOTES BY THE MINISTER FOR ALL OFFICIAL ADVISERS.

The B.B.C. unlike the press, checks all its news bulletins and its talks, to ensure that they are accurate and not in conflict with Government policy. This puts a special responsibility on all advisers of the civil Departments and the fighting Services, who may, at any time of the day or night, have to. advise the B.B.C. The following notes are set down by the Minister of Information for the guidance of all such officers. Much of what is stated below is already being acted upon, but it will be useful for all concerned to have a full Statement.

(1) The official checks on the B.B.C. news and talks services must not make these services less full of accurate news, less up-to-date, or less easy to follow and interesting than the newspapers or - which is most important - than the foreign, including enemy broadcasts. All engaged in advising the B. B.C. must remember that it reaches a nation-wide audience of simple people, who cannot be compelled to listen. Every duty officer on the civil or fighting Services side must, if he does not himself know the answer to a B.B.C. enquiry, take the most immediate steps to find out from the responsible authorities. To allow, for lack of information, an item of news to miss a B.B.C. bulletin (even though it may be appearing in, e.g. the evening papers) is sometimes inevitable, but always undesirable.

(2) It must be understood that, while bulletins will carry official communiqués and announcements whenever possible, the B.B.C. editors are free to rewrite these in language which their own experience has shown will be acceptable to listeners. The items as rewritten, will be checked back by the B.B.C. for accuracy, but considerable changes of idiom must be regarded as natural and desirable. It must further be understood that the B.B.C. while always doing its best to meet the wishes of Departments, has only a limited time at its disposal, and cannot afford to weary listeners with too great a weight of official matter. Communiqués or announcements, particularly if they come in at the last moment (see (4) over) may have to be left out.

(3) B.B.C. Home news bulletins are issued at 7.0 and 8.0 a.m., 1.0, 6.0 and 9.0 p.m., and at midnight. The first two (taken together), the 1.0, the 6.0 and the 9.0 p.m., are heard by average audiences of between 40 and 50 per cent of the adult listening public. About fifteen million adults, that is to say, hear a bulletin at one or other of the four main listening times - breakfast, lunch, early evening, mid-evening. These figures are stated to remind all concerned that over-concentration on the 9.0 p.m. period is to be, avoided.

(4) The preparation of bulletins is made much easier, and the chances of their being acceptable to listeners much greater, if all official material reaches the B.B.C. in good time (at least an hour before the broadcast). The practice of issuing official announcements just before a bulletin goes on the air has been, and is being, the cause of inefficiency in this national service.

(5) All Departments are reminded that information for which they seek broadcast publicity must reach the B.B.C. through the Ministry of Information.