Canadians expect us to provide a wide range of information and context so that they can make decisions during election and referendum campaigns.

We ensure that the facts and analysis we present on issues, candidates and parties is timely, accurate, fair and balanced over the course of the campaign.

We give all candidates, parties and issues equitable treatment. This does not necessarily mean equal broadcast time.

The CBC assumes responsibility for the methodology and quality of the surveys it commissions.

CBC commissions polls to reflect Canadian opinion on important issues of the day. The polls are commissioned, designed and the results are interpreted with the oversight of the CBC's research department.

To help our audience place a poll in context, we provide relevant information about the size of the sample and methodology along with the results. Where appropriate we report the margin of error.

CBC journalists should be familiar with accepted industry practices around sample size, reporting and interpreting results.

Elections are a time of intense polling. We are mindful of the potential impact on the outcome of the election when reporting results of polls closer to Election Day.

CBC abides by the standard set out in the Canada Elections Act, which states no new polling results may be released on Election Day.

Because polls are highly specialized, and because their results can have an impact on the outcome in a public policy debate or election, the commissioning of polls requires the approval of the head of research and the Director. The final design requires sign off from the head of research or delegate.

We report polls not commissioned by CBC as long as we can verify that the methodology meets CBC standards.

The sample size, methodology and interpretation of results of non-CBC polls should be reviewed by the CBC research department.

To help our audience place a poll in context, we provide relevant information about the methodology and size of the sample along with the results. Where applicable, we provide the margin of error.

CBC journalists should be familiar with accepted industry practices around sample size, reporting and interpreting results.

CBC abides by the standards set out in the Canada Elections Act, which states no new polling results may be released on election day.

Online surveys are a tool of audience engagement.

Since it does not fulfill any of the criteria set out in polling policy, the questions and the results are not characterized as polls.

We report the results by giving the number of votes cast for each option. We do not give the results as a percentage, as we normally do with bona fide polls.

If programs refer to online questions, the results are reported in a way that clearly indicates it has no scientific validity and are not meant to represent the accurate range of either public opinion nor the opinion of our audience.

We do not pay people for interviews used in our reporting, in our programming or in our online content. Nor do we pay people for eye witness accounts or answering our questions about events in which they participated. That would compromise the credibility of our reporting. It may be acceptable to reimburse certain legitimate expenses incurred by the interviewee in order to be available for the interview. An exceptional request to pay an interviewee in such a context is referred to the Director. If such a request is granted as an exceptional case and the interview is broadcast or posted online, we inform the audience of the conditions under which it was obtained.

Payment of fees at recognized rates to experts or commentators is current practice and acceptable where the person comments on news or current affairs and adds context to our content without being an actor in the event or issue. In this context the payment of fees need not be reported on air.

We may also be required to pay royalties for the broadcast or reproduction of copyrighted work such as photos, video recordings, audio recordings, drawings or other material that may be relevant to an interviewee’s statements. This does not constitute payment to a source.

We do not pay politicians, their representatives or other holders of public office for participating in our broadcasts, news bulletins, reporting or online content. In addition, the law governing federal MPs and senators prohibits them from receiving any payment whatever from CBC, including reimbursements of expenses, fees or royalties), because of its status as a federal crown corporation.

Working closely with sources as we develop and research stories is a valuable and common journalistic technique.

When we do so, we must ensure that we remain free from influence of any political, economic or other interest groups or lobbies.

Therefore it is not appropriate to supply specific questions to individuals, which then may be publicly raised in a legislative forum or any kind of Public Inquiry. This could harm the perception of our independence towards these individuals or the groups they represent.

Independence is a core value of CBC. If a current affairs or news employee has a close relative, defined as spouse, parent, child or sibling who is a major actor in a story, that employee cannot be involved in the coverage. It is the responsibility of the employee to inform his/her supervisor of the potential conflict so that a protocol can be developed.

Accepting free travel to help in newsgathering, creation of content or for research puts us in a conflict of interest. The provisions of CBC’s policy on free travel are covered in Corporate Policy 1.1.2

We do face situations where there is a public interest to cover a story, and the only means to get there is through an outside organization or individual. Our practice in these situations is to ask for an accounting of costs and try to reimburse them. These exceptional circumstances require the approval of the Managing Editor.

When we report from a location that we reached with help from outside support, we mention that fact in our coverage.

Here are some important policies that guide political work at the CBC:

Policy 1.1.8: Hiring of Political Figures

Policy 2.2.17: Political Activity

Persons or organizations preparing to publish the results of research or investigations will often offer us privileged access to the conclusions of their report on condition that we undertake to publish nothing of the shared content before a date set by the report’s author. This is called receiving information under embargo. A commitment to comply with the embargo may also have been made by a news agency that provides us with articles identified as embargoed.

Our policy is to fulfill our embargo commitments. Prior access to a study report allows us to better prepare our reports and to do rigorous reporting work on the results, and is thus a net benefit to the quality of information we publish. Also, we need to keep our word in order to keep information flowing from our sources.

However, if the embargo is violated by another media organization, we may consider publication after consulting editorial management and after informing the organization that asked for the embargo. We will inform them that the embargo has been broken and that we intend in turn to go public with the information.

If we have already obtained information covered by the material under embargo, we will avoid agreeing to an embargo and will publish the information according to our own criteria of newsworthiness and at the time we consider appropriate.