Journalism.co.uk reports today that the BBC will soon introduce an online corrections page.
The news came in an announcement from the BBC Trust that it is launching public consultation on its complaints process. The goal is to introduce changes that “improve the clarity and efficiency of the process, making it faster, simpler and easier to understand,” according to the Trust.
The corrections page was one of three related changes the BBC announced:
- Create a corrections and clarifications page on the BBC website;
- Appoint a ‘Chief Complaints Editor’ within the BBC to coordinate complaints handling activity across the BBC Executive, ‘fast-tracking’ specific complaints if necessary; and
- Establish a guide informing people where to complain (both within the BBC and externally).
I previously advocated for news organizations to create and maintain dedicated online corrections pages. To see what a good one looks like, check this offering from The New York Times. Here’s what I wrote about why they’re a necessary part of a corrections process:
The point of an online corrections page is to have a centralized place where readers can see the latest mistakes and corrections. It gives them the opportunity to discover if a recent article they read, or reporting they heard or saw, has been updated or corrected. It also provides a basic element of transparency. A dedicated page makes corrections more visible and accessible, and it increases the likelihood that people will receive the corrected information. After all, that’s the point of making correction in the first place. Yet corrections pages are the exception, not the rule.
