Purpose and values
Truth and accuracy
Diversity of opinion
Politics
Religion
Equal opportunities and diversity
Fairness
Privacy
Harm and offence
Children
Transparency
Accountability
The British Council is committed to delivering the highest editorial and ethical standards in the provision of its content and services on all platforms both in the UK and around the world. To help maintain this reputation, compliance with these guidelines is mandatory .
Our editorial values are governed by our purpose and our corporate values. Our purpose is to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide. We value people, creativity, integrity, mutuality and professionalism. Our editorial output must always be consistent with our output and our values.
We strive to be accurate and truthful. We write in clear, precise language. We are open and honest about what we don’t know and avoid unfounded speculation. Our specialist expertise will bring authority and analysis to the complex world in which we live.
We strive to be fair and open minded. To achieve our goal of mutual understanding, we will create opportunities to explore a range of points of view. In doing so, we will be explicit about our positive intent to further mutual understanding. We will be objective and even handed in our approach to a subject. We will provide professional judgments where appropriate.
The British Council operates at arm’s length from government and is non-political. Our ability to win and retain trust depends on our partners perceiving us as expressing these values.
The British Council respects the fundamental human right to exercise freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This includes an individual’s freedom to worship, teach, practise and observe. At the same time, we recognise our duty to avoid unjustified offence or likely harm. We achieve this by ensuring our output is not used to denigrate the beliefs of others, while preserving a place for constructive, even if contentious, comment.
The values of the British Council underpin our commitment to equal opportunities and diversity. We are committed to representing the full diversity of the United Kingdom in our work. Everything published on our websites must be consistent with these values.
Our output will be based on fairness, openness and straight dealing. Contributors will be treated honestly and with respect.
We will respect privacy and will not infringe it without good reason.
We aim to reflect the world as it is, including all aspects of the human experience. But we balance our right to publish innovative and challenging content with our responsibility to protect the vulnerable.
The British Council follows the widespread practice of defining a child as any young person under the age of 18 years. We will always seek to safeguard the welfare of children who use our services and contribute to our content. This includes the right of children to be heard.
We will be transparent about what we are offering to our users. We will help them, where appropriate, by labelling content and by being clear about who has created it and under whose editorial control. This will enhance our role as a trusted guide to the internet.
We are accountable to our audiences and will deal fairly and openly with them. Their continuing trust in the British Council is a crucial part of our contract with them. We will be open in admitting mistakes and encourage a culture of willingness to learn from them.
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