h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The restrictions on election conversations will remain in place until Monday 14 June 2004. Until this date, conversations about election issues can only be held on the designated areas of the BBC. On DNA, this the Hub Election page at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/Elections2004 From Monday, 14 June the restrictions will be lifted and you will be free to discuss the elections and other political issues within all of the DNA community areas and BBC messageboards. For those that are interested, the reason for extending the restrictions beyond the poll day tomorrow is that Section 30 of The European Parliamentary Elections Regulations bans the reporting of any exit poll relating to the European Parliamentary elections before the close of polls in all member states on Sunday 13 June. We need to ensure that this regulation isn't breached on the BBC. For more information, take a look at the announcement Peta has made on the DNA Hub: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/F94024?thread=432972

"For those that are interested..."



B

So does this mean that David Dimbleby and his team will be forbidden to say anything about the Euro elections on the three-hour 'Election Night' programme on BBC1 tomorrow night?

Everything Mr Dimbleby is scripted to say has most probably been through a lawyer first. As public forums don't have that luxury, the rules are slightly different, but I don't think we'll be seeing a swingometer until Monday for that one...

"probably been through a lawer first."



Is there a hint that the program will be spouting a load of old

So what's on t'box that night...

BBC1 11:35 Election night.

BBC2 11:50 Triple Eho (1972) WWII romance, with Glenda Jackson...

In the middle of European election reporting, Aunty decides to chuck us a reminder in the TV listings at least that a war was fought with these people over political differences. As for Glenda Jackson, she is the one change from acting in films to become a Labour MP, so no political statements being made by the BBC then.

Looking at what elses is on, me thinks Channel 5 had it with a film: One Night Stand, until I read what's its's about, and I've seen already.

Oh well, I'll have to cope with the film on ITV2 GI Jane (1997) Demi Moore *getting physical* ahh that's a hardship

Hi Ormie,

It means that David Dimbleby won't be reporting on any exit poll relating to the European Parliamentary elections before the close of polls in all member states on Sunday 13 June.

Presumably, if they did reveal the results so far people could use the information to vote strategically in other member states.

Absolutely. We wouldn't want to give Poles for Tony an unfair advantage

Yup. After all, they could turn suicidal and become EXIT Poles.

Realistically, then, there'll be no point in any European exit polls in the UK. Considering the usual level of turnout, it's unlikely to take three days to count the votes. We'll presumably get the actual result of the Euro election as soon as the legal reporting ban is lifted, and Mr Dimbleby and friends will mostly be talking about the UK local elections tonight.

It's an interesting point about the BBC's choice of film for election night, but - as with the recent D-day anniversary coverage - you can look at it in different ways according to your attitude. Eurosceptic view: 'Some of these Europeans used to be our enemies. Previous generations of Britons fought wars to be free from them.' Pro-Europe view: 'Previous generations of Europeans fought wars against each other. Let's have more unity so that doesn't happen again.'

Hi

I've just heard this news.

Defying orders from Brussels, the Dutch government says it will release preliminary European parliamentary election results early, even at the risk of being hauled before Europe's highest court. The Dutch will publish the results after polls close on Thursday evening.

The Dutch claim the new law does allow early publication of results if they are not the final tally.

The UK (and the BBC) are not intending to defy the ruling.

If you wish to discuss this, please post to the Hub Election page, and *not* here please!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/Elections2004

Thanks

Ooh... controversial

Yes, "controversial." Posting inappropriately can be, just ask the dut...

I saw the results when it was after counting 'only' 99.9 % of the votes. Quite a large margin of error left

Slightly academic now but I fail to see how the laws relating to the European parliamentary vote would relate to the h2g2 membership discussing the local election results – unless of course the BBC & the Editors believe that either (or both) the membership or the moderators are too witless to be able to differentiate between local and European elections.

... and why Monday when the last European poll closed 22:00 Sunday, from which point the reporting restrictions imposed by E.U. law are lifted?

Because BBC staff aren't at work on Sunday evenings?

As you've already been informed, HappyDude, the only reason the election guidelines had to be in place until today was that we issued *one* set of guidelines to cover both sets of elections. This was to protect the community against conversation hijacking from supporters of specific parties - as has happened on the moderated messageboards.

The election guidelines were not imposed to restrict your use of the service - quite the opposite. We had a legal obligation to ensure that as much as possible h2g2 was protected from being hijacked and the only other option was to turn the entire site back to post-moderation - which we felt would have been unfair to members who have no interest in the topic.

In the interests of fairness *all* political discussion that we came across would be failed. Otherwise we'd have to spend time justifying why post a was passed and post b was failed and we simply didn't have the time or resources for that. However, you were still free to make any comments you wished to make within reason on the Hub - which was post-moderated for the duration of the election period to enable the Moderators to check whether the postings were appropriate for the time period.

As for 'why Monday', at the time that we briefed the moderators, there was no guaranteed time on Sunday where we could be sure in advance that the polls had closed. Also, as Z explained, the Hub would continue to be post-moderated until Peta came back into the office on Monday morning - hence 'Monday' was given as the point where the guidelines would be lifted. Which they have been.

"... the only other option was to turn the entire site back to post-moderation..."

"...the Hub would continue to be post-moderated..."

Shouldn't you be talking about "pre-moderation"?

I doubt the whole site has ever been on premod - that would make it almost impossible to use. We were once on post-mod though, where every post was read by a moderator and removed if they felt it breached a guideline. There was much celebration when the beeb decided we were grown up enough to police ourselves, so (apart from those individuals on premod) the mods only get yikes'd posts to deal with these days.

I think the post-moderation system, that we argued against for such a long time, is what Jimster is refering to

Pre-moderation is where the postings go into a queue and do not appear until they have been checked.

Post-moderation - which is what I was referring to - is where all messages are posted live to the site, but are then checked by moderators.