Wednesday, March 11, 2015 social media and purdah: your handy guide
In the public sector, Purdah is a period in the run-up to the election where comms changes. You are not allowed to promote politicians or get involved in a political campaign. Here are some guidelines for social media and Purdah.
by Dan Slee
There’s this funny period in the run-up to an election which sees local government comms team change behaviour.
Gone are the press releases from politicians and in comes quotes from officers. Why? To ensure that the council cannot be accused of political bias in the run up to polling day.
It’s been around for decades and local government comms teams have got a pretty good grasp of what this entails. It means under The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity (Local Government Act 1986) that newsletters, press releases, conferences, badges and web pages are affected.
