Editorial Guidelines for Programs Submitted to KET

• Must comply with the Federal Communications Act, FCC regulations and policies, and all other applicable legal requirements.
• Must adhere to all PBS and KET programming content and editorial requirements, as well as standards for production quality and formatting.
• Must provide content that is mission-based — educational, informational, insightful, and/or cultural entertainment — and may not promote commercial entities and/or their products, services, facilities, or events. Program content from nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and governmental entities cannot be essentially self-promotional in nature. In the case of individuals and for-profit organizations or commercial entities, program content cannot be self-promotional in any respect. Content from all sources must be a service to viewers with educational, informational, and/or cultural merit and not presented for promotional purposes.
• Must have all rights cleared for broadcast and online streaming distribution by KET. The program producer must guarantee that it owns the copyright to the program and has secured broadcast and online streaming rights for all material, audio and video, contained within the program. The program producer must also agree to defend and indemnify KET against any claims arising out of the content of the program, including claims based on infringement of intellectual property rights.
• Must be accurate, truthful, and as complete as possible. Programming on KET may not mislead audiences in any way.
• Must provide full disclosure of partner interests. Viewers must be advised of all contributors to programming content and any financial, in-kind, or other remuneration related to the content of the programming. Disclosure of the producer/presenter of programming is also required.
• Must provide balanced and fair treatment of matters of public policy and/or controversy. Programming may not advocate one side of any particular issue, viewpoint, or policy. Special consideration will be given to programs dealing with controversial and/or public policy issues. While programming content may deal with matters of public policy, it may not advocate or lobby on any issue or legislative action. Alternative viewpoints must be acknowledged and fairly represented. Special consideration and care must also be applied in the interpretation of current and/or historical events.
• May not include appearances by political candidates, political advertisements, material from political action committees, or any other content that may be deemed to promote candidates.
• May not be hosted by, predominantly feature, or be produced by elected, political, or government officials, or associated staff.
• May not create any perception that KET endorses or favors any political, elected, or government official, or any political party or viewpoint.
• May not attempt to sell any product, service, facility, event, or include fund-raising or solicitation of any kind, charitable or otherwise.
• May not contain religious services or content that is designed to proselytize or further the principles of particular religions or religious philosophies.
• May not contain any content that is racist or advocates any type of discrimination.
• No public service announcements of any type will be broadcast.

Programs considered for broadcast are accepted or scheduled at the sole discretion of KET’s Programming staff. No producer or presenter of programming is entitled to have its programming broadcast at all, or on any particular day or at any particular time.

KET acknowledges that some guidelines may be subjective in nature. KET may not have anticipated, in the guidelines above, every circumstance where programming might in any manner jeopardize KET’s interests, FCC licenses, PBS membership, integrity, and/or public trust, but in the event KET determines that there is such a risk, no such programming will be broadcast.

KET is available to assist with any questions and/or issues pertaining to production or program submission. Prior contact with KET is recommended to help avoid any issues with program content, production quality, formatting, and/or requirements for broadcast (such as length, credits, rights, captioning, etc.).

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If you have questions about editorial guidelines, please contact:

Karen Bell
Director of Programming
859-258-7377
kbell@ket.org