Â鶹Éç

Introduction

In some cases, the Â鶹Éç may decide to set up its own awards, to recognise the achievements or talents of members of the public or a specialist group such as writers, musicians or sport stars. Â鶹Éç Awards may sometimes be run in conjunction with a suitable outside organisation.

Â鶹Éç Awards will inevitably give a Â鶹Éç stamp of approval for the achievements of individuals and/or third party organisations. As such they should only be set up to serve a serious purpose. We should not offer awards if we do not intend the recipient to be able to make reference to the award in public.

Consideration should be given at a senior level to ensure that the proposal to set up a Â鶹Éç award is editorially acceptable.

All Â鶹Éç Awards must comply with the Â鶹Éç Code of Conduct which is affixed to this guidance note.

This section provides detailed editorial advice about how to run a Â鶹Éç award. It outlines the new Â鶹Éç referrals and compliance process for use of telephony.

In all cases where an award involves a public vote using telephony and/or a combination of online voting and telephony you will need technical, legal and contracts advice from the (link only available to internal Â鶹Éç users).

The following principles apply to all Â鶹Éç awards:

• Any proposal to set up a Â鶹Éç award must be referred to Editorial Policy and a Senior Editorial Figure at the planning stages;
• There should be clear, published rules, which have been agreed with ITACU Legal or in some cases the relevant genre business affairs manager
• Criteria for judging or nominations must be transparent, clear, fair and consistent;
• Winners and runners up must have clear written guidance as to how they may make reference to the award once the result has been published by the Â鶹Éç; it should be clear in the terms and conditions that failure to comply could result in disqualification or the award being rescinded;
• If an award is to be decided totally or in part via a public vote then appropriate efforts should be made to ensure the voting mechanism used should be robust

If the award is to be run in partnerships with an outside organisation then:

• Our choice of partner and the editorial nature of the awards proposed must be appropriate and should not bring the Â鶹Éç into disrepute;
• The Â鶹Éç's editorial impartiality and integrity must not be compromised and the Â鶹Éç must retain overall editorial control;
• We should work with a range of partners and not unduly favour one above another

If the award involves a bursary or a prize funded by an outside organisation, this must be approved by Editorial Policy and the Â鶹Éç Regulatory lawyers.

If there is any proposal to sponsor the awards ceremony, this must be referred at the earliest stage to Editorial Policy. Sponsorship by commercial organisations is not normally permitted for Â鶹Éç Awards any proposals to do so must be referred in advance to Editorial Policy

Everyone who runs a Â鶹Éç award must read the summary advice at the start of this Part to ensure they have complied with the requirements of this guidance.

1. Permissions and Referrals

Before you may run an award you must complete the Awards approval form (available from ITACU) and submit to the Controller or equivalent Senior Editorial Figure in your division for authorisation.

Awards may be complex to set up and may require advice from several specialist areas of the Â鶹Éç including Editorial Policy, ITACU Legal and in some case the relevant genre Business Affairs manager, Marketing and Communications, Â鶹Éç Policy, If the award involves any use of telephony then technical and contracts advice must be sought form ITACU.

Therefore any proposals to set up a Â鶹Éç award must be referred at an early stage to Editorial Policy, who will advise on which other department may need to be consulted, depending on the nature of the proposal and help coordinate this advice.

2. How to set up and run Â鶹Éç Awards

Awards may be decided by way of a panel, a public vote or a combination of the two.

An appropriate editorial figure must oversee and be responsible for the running of the award. A Â鶹Éç award cannot be set up at the last minute

3. Judging a Â鶹Éç Award

3.1 Terms and Conditions

Awards can only be judged fairly, either by the public or a panel, if clear criteria are established at the outset. These must be outlined in the terms and conditions so that entrants, nominators and judges are all clear as to the purpose of the award and how it is to be decided.

If there is to be a public vote then clear terms and conditions for voting must be published; see also Part C: Detailed Guidance on Voting.

3.2 Panels

In many cases it will be appropriate to use a panel to judge entries. The judging system should normally be clearly explained to the audience and must be explained to entrants via on-air/ online announcements and the terms and conditions. The panel should normally include, or be overseen, by a Â鶹Éç representative to ensure that the Â鶹Éç remains in editorial control of the running of all of its awards at all stages. Panelists must be issued with the criteria for judging. They must confirm, in writing, that they have no conflicts of interest; for example they should not normally have any close personal or commercial connection with entrants.

If it emerges that there is a conflict, once the award judging process has commenced, then the panel member should withdraw. Legal advice may be needed and the senior editorial figure responsible for overseeing the running of the award must be consulted; advice must also be sought from Editorial Policy. It might be might be necessary to restart judging.

3.3 Nominations

Sometimes the awards process may take several stages: nominations may be drawn via public nominations or via a panel; a shortlist may be decided by a vote or a panel or a combination of the two.

We must apply clear criteria at all stages.

4. Jointly run awards with third parties

Further advice should be sought from the Â鶹Éç Editorial Guidelines Section 16 External Relationships and Financing.

Any proposal for a jointly run award must be referred at an early stage to Editorial Policy.

The Â鶹Éç may decide to mount a competitive award with a suitable organisation such as academic, educational or artistic institutions or charitable foundations: for example, the Â鶹Éç Short Story Award.

In some cases our awards may be made up of a number of categories and different partners may help decide individual categories.

The choice of partner for a joint award must be appropriate and editorially justifiable; care must be taken not to promote the partner. All on-air and online references should be editorially justifiable. Even though the award may be jointly organised, the Â鶹Éç must retain overall editorial control. The partner may not decide the winner. In some cases, such as The Brits or MOBOs, Â鶹Éç audiences may have the opportunity to vote in a third party organised award (see section 5 below).

We do not normally mount awards with commercial organisations. However, it may be possible:

• To run a competitive award with a publication or other media organisation for a joint award for skills associated with broadcasting such as journalism, music, writing or drama or other Â鶹Éç initiative;
• For local radio stations to join with a regional publication to organise and present a local award.

When organising an award with a media organisation or publication, it is important that our choice of partner is editorially justifiable and that we take care not to promote the partner on-air.

Nominations and/or voting may be via the Â鶹Éç and the publication or media organisation, but Â鶹Éç licence fee funded services may only publicise entry via the Â鶹Éç. It is essential that no-one is required to buy a publication in order to be entered for a Â鶹Éç award or make a nomination.

Normally the Â鶹Éç will not incorporate the third party name into the title of the award.

Any proposed exception must be referred to Editorial Policy. It will never do so in the case of a commercial organisation.

A contract or agreement will need to be drawn up between the Â鶹Éç and the outside organisation, which must set out clearly lines of responsibility; Business Affairs must be consulted.

A third party may do the following:

• Provide Specialist expertise for the judging panel;
• Help run and publicise the awards;
• Provide or run facilities for shortlisted candidates – such as workshops;
• Provide part of the overall prize – e.g. a grant or bursary, performance opportunity, publication of a winner's work

4.1 Bursaries for Â鶹Éç Awards

The Â鶹Éç sometimes mounts special award ceremonies at outside venues for some of the key awards offered by the Â鶹Éç such as Young Musician of the Year or the Radio 3 World Music Awards. In some cases in order to defray the costs to the licence fee payer it may be acceptable to supplement the cost of mounting a public event by sponsorship from a non-commercial body.

The money from the sponsor may only be used for the costs of mounting the event.

No sponsorship money may be used for any broadcast costs. Accounts must show clear separation between event costs and broadcasting costs.

The sponsor must not be involved in any way with the running of the awards or in any decisions as to who receives awards. An individual award at the ceremony may also be sponsored, but again the sponsor will have no say over who wins the award.

In some cases it may be acceptable for a non-commercial sponsor to fund an award which might take the form of a grant or bursary for the overall winner or winners of a specific Â鶹Éç award. Winners may apply for such a bursary after they have won their award. The Â鶹Éç must be in charge of the process of awarding these bursaries against published criteria.

Bursaries are only offered for clear public service reasons to enable the recipients to undertake suitable activities such as service to the community or artistic or musical studies.

Legal advice must be sought over the terms and administration of a bursary.

Any proposal for sponsorship of a Â鶹Éç Public Service Award or Awards event must be referred at the earliest stage to Editorial Policy.

Please also see guidance: Sponsored Â鶹Éç on-air or online events; guidance on sponsored off-air Â鶹Éç events.

5. Third party awards including Â鶹Éç audience participation

It may be acceptable for Â鶹Éç programmes or Â鶹Éç channels to accept the opportunity for our audiences to vote in an award or set of awards mounted by a third party e.g. a specific category in The Brits, or the Baftas.

Great care must be taken to ensure that such an association does not bring the Â鶹Éç into disrepute. It is not acceptable for Â鶹Éç programmes, services and channels simply to lend their names to third party awards without sufficient editorial involvement.

All such proposals must be referred at an early stage to the relevant Controller or equivalent Senior Editorial figure and to Editorial Policy.

6. Verification

Â鶹Éç Awards are only mounted for a serious purpose and we normally expect them to have a resonance beyond the associated broadcast. They may have a direct impact on the winner and runners up. It is imperative that the award has been run in a robust manner, and it may be important to be able to demonstrate this.

In some cases it may be appropriate to consider putting in place a system of independent verification of the process and final result. For example, some programmes may wish to use an independent solicitor or accountant or suitable verification body. In other cases where there is a judging panel it might be important to ensure the Chair is independent of the Â鶹Éç and/or any partner organisation. Editorial Policy will advise whether external verification is required and will liaise with ITACU to procure a suitable verifier.

7. Use of a Â鶹Éç Award by winners and/or runners up

It is likely that winners and in some cases, finalists/runners up, may wish to refer to the fact they have won or been considered for a Â鶹Éç Award. We must ensure there is clear information for winners and nominees as to how the award may be referenced.

This information should be issued to all entrants at an appropriate stage. Adherence to these must form part of the terms and conditions. We must ensure that the terms and condition include the right to withdraw the award at any stage if it transpires that winners have broken them or if their subsequent behaviour could bring the Â鶹Éç into disrepute.

In may be advisable to put together a "winner's pack" of Â鶹Éç material which may be used by winners, with accompanying conditions. This could consist of any of the following depending on the nature of the award, subject to relevant clearances, and in accordance with Â鶹Éç Policy's advice:

• An award logo;
• Relevant short clips and or stills of their entry or appropriate short extracts of the programme such as the announcement of the result;
• A form of words to describe their success in the awards as agreed by the Â鶹Éç;
• Possibly a Â鶹Éç quote;
• A certificate, which may be displayed;
• A link back to the Â鶹Éç site to explain the background to the awards and how the end result was arrived at;
• In certain very limited cases they may be able to reference the award on specific product such as stickers on books or CDs. However, any such agreements MUST be referred to Editorial Policy who will consult with Â鶹Éç Policy: a separate trade mark licence may need to be issued

Winners will not be allowed to use any elements of the winning pack or refer to the Â鶹Éç or its programmes and services:

• In commercial advertising or promotions;
• In order to attract external funding;
• To lobby or campaign;
• To attract donations

Each case will vary and Editorial Policy, Business Affairs and in some cases Â鶹Éç Policy must be consulted.

8. Â鶹Éç Awards mounted in conjunction with Â鶹Éç publications

There are particular issues here and any such proposals must be referred to Editorial Policy at the earliest stages.

9. Documentation

Appropriate records must be kept by the appropriate editorial figure responsible for overseeing the running of the award, and the telephone service provider where relevant; in order to demonstrate the Â鶹Éç awards have been run fairly, appropriately, in accordance with the Â鶹Éç Guidelines, and the terms and conditions.

If the award is decided in whole or part via a public vote involving telephony then a copy of all relevant documentation must also be sent to ITACU.

Contact ITACU