In both large and small organisations, safeguarding is not a secondary concern or a compliance checkbox—it is a core obligation of ethical, inclusive and lawful media practice. Whether we operate as national broadcasters, local newsrooms, digital platforms, or community radio stations, we all share a responsibility to protect the safety, dignity and rights of every individual we engage with.
From the BBC’s recent Respect at Work 2025 review to the safeguarding frameworks guiding public services and voluntary sector organisations, the message is clear: safeguarding is about more than child protection. It extends to protecting all people—especially those who are vulnerable—from harm, abuse, and exploitation. It includes how we treat our colleagues, how we manage power and accountability, and how we uphold standards of respect in our daily working relationships.
Safeguarding is Everyone’s Responsibility
For media organisations, safeguarding begins not with a broadcast, but with our people. Volunteers, freelancers, contractors, contributors, and audiences must all be considered when creating a culture of safety. This involves embedding safeguarding into:
- Recruitment and onboarding practices that screen for suitability (including appropriate checks such as DBS for relevant roles).
- Training and awareness for all staff and contributors, ensuring that everyone knows how to identify concerns and report them.
- Clear codes of conduct that go beyond editorial standards to establish behavioural expectations in workplaces and creative environments.
- Effective reporting mechanisms and whistleblowing procedures that allow for transparency and early intervention.
- Regular review and audit of safeguarding practices in line with sector benchmarks.
The Children Act 2004 and Care Act 2014 make it a statutory obligation to protect children and vulnerable adults from harm. However, organisations are increasingly expected to move beyond legal minimums and adopt safeguarding practices that reflect wider principles of human dignity, informed consent, psychological safety and social responsibility.
Community media groups, often working with limited resources, are not exempt from this responsibility. In fact, the proximity and trust they share with their audiences make it all the more vital that they model best practice. This includes ensuring that volunteers working with youth, marginalised groups, or public-facing events are trained, supervised, and supported in line with the same expectations we find in schools, libraries, health services and other community-facing roles.
The Standard Across Sectors
In public service and voluntary organisations, safeguarding is not just a risk management issue—it’s a cornerstone of legitimacy. Local authorities, NHS trusts, faith groups and youth services are required to have safeguarding leads, clear policies, and regular training. Sector leaders are expected to demonstrate that safeguarding is embedded into the organisational culture, with routes for accountability and responsiveness.
Media organisations, whether public or independent, should be no different.
What’s more, the standards emerging from professional bodies and charities—including the NSPCC, Ann Craft Trust and CIISA (Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority)—increasingly set out expectations for the whole media ecosystem, from producers and editors to on-screen talent and freelancers.
Safeguarding Is Not Just Editorial
Too often, safeguarding in media is narrowly interpreted as a matter of editorial responsibility—protecting children during filming, vetting interviewees, or managing content standards. While these are vital, they are only one part of the picture.
True safeguarding extends to the workplace culture. It’s about preventing harassment, abuse of power, coercion, or unsafe working conditions. It’s about calling out behaviour that crosses a line—whether in a control room, on location, or during a meeting. It’s about recognising that those in precarious positions—freelancers, young people, minority groups—are often the least likely to speak up, and the most vulnerable to harm when safeguarding breaks down.
The BBC Workplace Culture Review makes this point explicitly: a small number of individuals, when left unchallenged, can cast a long shadow over an organisation’s culture. Prevention, early intervention, and leadership accountability are the keys to building trust and upholding integrity.
Law, Dignity and Clarity
Safeguarding also reflects a deeper legal and moral responsibility: to uphold the dignity of the person. This includes acknowledging the real and specific protections granted under UK law to individuals on the basis of sex, age, disability, and other protected characteristics.
Importantly, the recent UK Supreme Court ruling has reaffirmed that sex is legally defined as biological under the Equality Act 2010. This clarification underscores the need for safeguarding policies to respect sex-based rights, particularly in relation to single-sex spaces, representation, and protection from harassment.
This is not a matter of culture war rhetoric—it is a matter of legal clarity and organisational duty. Media organisations, particularly those funded by or accountable to the public, must not equivocate on this point. Safeguarding policies must be grounded in law, not ideology. They must respect the rights of women and girls, the safety of children, and the dignity of all employees and collaborators—without fear or favour.
What Community Media Can Do
At Decentered Media, we advocate for a model of community media that is place-based, inclusive, and ethically grounded. This means:
- Developing safeguarding policies that are clear, proportionate and lawful.
- Providing training to all staff, volunteers and associates in identifying and reporting concerns.
- Embedding a culture of mutual respect, listening and accountability—where people feel able to speak up, and confident they will be heard.
- Respecting sex-based rights and responsibilities, and ensuring all spaces and processes are safe for all participants, including those who are vulnerable or marginalised.
Safeguarding is not a burden—it is a commitment to being better. To be trustworthy. To be a space where people can express themselves without fear, and participate with confidence.
In a time when trust in media is under strain, and when many people feel left behind or unheard, community media has an opportunity—and an obligation—to lead by example.