How Does 'The Detectives' Stick to BBC Guidelines?

How Does the Documentary Stick to the BBC Guidelines?

The documentary is accurate because it is in a fly-on-the-wall format that follows a major over-arching storyline and nothing that is displayed in the documentary is inaccurate.

The documentary is partly impartial, but at the same it is not. This is because the documentary expects the viewer to feel sympathy towards both the victim and the suspect, so in that sense it is impartial, yet it seems to focus more on the victim’s sympathy and the polices’ attempts to secure a conviction, so in that sense it is not impartial.

The documentary is quite harmful and offensive. The reason for this is that it informs the viewer of in-depth descriptions of a serious crime and then shows the suspect being questioned and the victims in a great amount of distress.

The documentary does seem to respect people’s right of privacy and does not include people who have not been given consent to do so. This is shown in the sense that they censor out the names of the people who have not given permission for their names to be broadcast on television.

This documentary also respects the BBC guideline regarding children and young people and their right to safeguarding and consent. This is demonstrated in the way that they choose not to show nor name the young victim of the crime.

As well as this, the documentary also acknowledges the Reporting Crime guideline. This is because the certain crime depicted in this documentary is in the public interest and also respects privacy. This is shown in the radio extracts that the crime of exploitation gained notoriety as the number of reported victims began to grow.

Also, the documentary respects the BBC's code of censorship because it censors out graphic details of the crime and does not reveal any unnecessary details which could hinder the investigation or damage the BBc's integrity.

Moreover, The Detectives also values the BBC's code of the 9pm Watershed. This is shown by the fact that The Detectives was shown on BBC after 9pm.

In addition, this documentary also abides by the BBC's humiliation code. This is shown by the fact that they do not humiliate suspects and rather simply let the police interrogate them.

As well as this, The Detectives documentary respects the BBC's Audience Expectations code. This is because the voice-over at the start of the episode states that the episode contains scenes and content that may be distressing to some viewers.

Also, the documentary repeats the BBC's Photo-sensitive Epilepsy code. This is because The Detectives does not contain any quickly-changing lights that could potentially trigger someone's epilepsy or evoke a seizure.

As well as this, the documentary also adheres to the BBC’s Editorial Guideline of Accuracy, especially the Misleading Audiences chapter. This is clearly demonstrated by the amount of depth that they go into. For example, with the archive footage and images from the 1970’s and explanation of the suspect’s fate at the end of the documentary.