We thought it would be useful to explain what you can expect when you decide to contribute to World Have Your Say. We always endeavour to stick to this and if we don’t, you have every right to pick us up on it. If you have any more questions, please email me. Ros

IF WE’VE CONTACTED YOU TO COME ON AIR WE PROMISE….…to get you on air as close to the time we specify as possible. …to deal with your opinions courteously and without needlessly cutting you short.

…that if time constraints prevent us from getting you on air, we will still contact you to explain why we’ve been unable to hear your views on that programme.

…that we will give you as clear an indication as we can of other contributors you might speak to. (We can’t give you a guarantee of everyone who you will speak to because of the nature of the programme.)

IF YOU’VE CALLED DURING THE SHOW AND WE PUT YOU ON AIR…

…then point 2 above applies.

WHAT WE ASK OF YOU ON AIR…

To make your point succinctly; there are many people who want to get on and have their say too.

To join the conversation and talk to others on the programme, whether you agree or disagree with them. You’re just as welcome to ask them a question as I am.

Please don’t make “platform speeches”. Not only can long comments be an ineffective way for you to get your point across, but they alienate other listeners who want to hear a conversation. We’d much rather hear three short comments from you than one long one.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU POST A MESSAGE ON THE BLOG?

All your comments are moderated so they won’t be published until one of us has read what you have to say. We read every one of the comments we receive and if they don’t break the house rules, then they should get published.

Our editor Mark has also written about ‘blog courtesy’. We want our blog to provide a welcoming and respectful environment where we can all discuss the news. If someone decides they don’t want to fit in with that, then we may not publish their comment.Also, just as you can’t talk endlessly on the programme, so we won’t publish essays on the blog. Excessively long messages, especially ones which veer off topic, will not be approved.

WHEN WILL THE PRESENTER INTERRUPT ME? We’ve had complaints that I intervene too much, and that I don’t do it enough. I may not always get it right, but this will explain the thinking behind when our presenters choose to speak up.We want this programme to be as much about conversations between people around the world as possible. Consequently the role of the presenter is not that of the traditional news anchor around which the whole programme revolves. However our presenters do of course have an important role to play.They are there to encourage conversation, maintain accuracy in our description of the news and, when necessary, intervene when opinions being expressed are unacceptable. Though what exactly is unacceptable is again not perfectly defined (see editorial guidelines below).We certainly don’t want the show to be, in the words of one person who complained, ‘another forum for hate-mongers’, but we also don’t want to start censoring listeners so that only certain types of opinions are allowed.

BBC EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

Please refer to theBBC’s  Editorial Guidelines for everything else we’re signed up to do by being part of the BBC.

We hope to hear from you soon.