ABC issues social media policy
Posted November 5th, 2009 by debritz
ABC managing director Mark Scott has issued guidelines for the use of social media such as Twitter by ABC staff and contractors. The policy's four enforceable standards are:
 1. Do not mix the professional and the personal in ways likely to bring the ABC into disrepute.2. Do not undermine your effectiveness at work. 3. Do not imply ABC endorsement of your personal views. 4. Do not disclose confidential information obtained through work. |
Seems sensible enough to me.
Update: The Australian has a report on Scott's digital strategy, as revealed at the Media140 conference, here.
I find the timing of these new policies really interesting. They come a few days after large sections of the online community notice that staff message-board posting regarding GoodGame's Jeremy Ray's sacking exposed lies in the "unified team statement" about the reasons and where the decision came from.
Thanks to Google Cache, you can see the original message from their message boards here:
http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:AtjmwnGJ1GkJ:www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx%3Fb%3D59%26m%3D281780%26ps%3D20%26dm%3D2+%22it+is+a+decision+made+from+above+which+certainly+had+a+lot+of+us+behind+the+scenes+worried%22&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
Which includes information that has been removed from the message as it now appears:
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=59&t=84&a=0&ps=20&dm=1&m=281575&pd=1&p=2
Interestingly the deleted information supported Jeremy Ray's story. (They even missed another post entirely which supports Ray's side of the story as well:
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=59&m=286428&ps=20&dm=1&pd=2&am=290299#m290299
It does not add much weight to the "Statement from the Team" post here:
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=59&t=151&a=0&ps=20&dm=1&m=289368&pd=1&p=1
... not to mention bringing into question who actually wrote this post and whose views/message it really represents.