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

We do understand that h2g2 users will want to discuss ongoing developments regarding the recent incidents in London. However, we do need to remind everyone that once a suspect is arrested for an offence, or offences, legal restrictions apply. Being arrested doesn't in itself indicate guilt, so messages posted to h2g2 (as to BBC messageboards as a whole) which presume guilt on behalf of specific individuals may need to be removed for legal reasons. This ruling applies to all instances of legal proceedings, not just in relation to these incidents.

Some examples of postings which may be failed are:

'the terrorist Mr John xxxx has been arrested.'
'the man they've arrested called xxxx is the bomber.'

Acceptable comments could include the following:

'the suspected terrorist has been arrested'
'they've arrested several men in London'
'the suspected bomber was seen in xxxx.'

Again, we hope all users will understand this is line with standard UK legal practice.

In other words, please cut and paste the following into every single post you make:


"ALLEGEDLY"

I completely understand.

"ALLEGEDLY"

Unfortunately, simply pasting the word 'allegedly' to the end of anything you say is about as water-tight in legal terms as a trans-Atlantic dinghy made from ryvita and tracing paper...

So no, you can't simply say what you like and then go 'allegedly' at the end of it, I'm afraid!

Paully

Good call!

"A trans-Atlantic dinghy made from ryvita and tracing paper"


And the sad thing is I've actually crossed the atlantic in less sea-worthy objects than that

but surly if the artcle quoted is from a BBC source it must be *true .So perfectly acceptable and not against the rules

alas, no-one told the main BBC broadcast news this - I have heard at least one broadcast that stated "xxxxx was the person who attempt to detonate a bomb on the underground"

CHawke

Allegedlly or not, I hope they caught the sons of guns and it leads to the bigger packages.


Sorry about it hitting your shores. Pump them babies still they spill the beans.

How do you say that? Do you say "blank..." or "bleep...."

<>

That would be nice if I had *any* familiarity with standard (or even substandard) UK legal practice. Heck, I get caught short regarding *American* legal practice, which explains why I occasionally get traffic tickets for doing things I *thought* were all right.

Please, dear BBC, be nice to us if we post some dumb stuff that we didn't know was against the regulations. I can't hide out on another flight because I'm afraid of space travel.

it will only be moderated. the main relevance is if somebody is accused of something, they are innocent until proven guilty, and so you must speak of tem as the accused, not the guilty

sorry, them, not tem

<>

Oh. Well, that's reassuring, because we try to do that in the U.S. as well.

We may have to remove postings, but don't panic, it won't affect our view of the person making the postings unless it's really clear they're trying to cause trouble. In which case, we release the hounds

Hounds? what is this the dark age? I've the trained attack badgers ready for your use though should you r require them

some one needs phones Sherlock Holmes!

(They're actually hamsters, but we tell them they're hounds just to protect them from the truth)