The BBC is almost certain to receive an exemption from crucial parts of the new Equality Act, but you could be forgiven for thinking they are still remarkably keen to promote religion - at least inasmuch as that means promoting the Roman Catholic religion. It just so happens that Roman Catholicism is the faith of Mark Thompson, the BBCs own Director-General.

It was, in fact, Mark Thompson who, at the prompting of the BBC Trust's Michael Lyons, wrote to then government minister Lord Carter in April last year apparently asking for broadcasters to be exempted from provisions in the Equality Act. The reason advanced by the DCMS for the exemption is that the BBC must be 'editorially independent.'

Recall the first of the BBC's six Values:

Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.

Hayley's Wednesday report about the Pope and Vatican City (previous blog) - does that come across to you as impartial?

In the 5pm flagship bulletin on BBC One the same day, Ore told viewers that lots of people don't agree with what the Pope stands for, and that children in the care of Catholic priests had been "mistreated." Robert Pigott said people are asking why the Pope didn't do more to help, but he failed to mention that Ratzinger was actually one of key players keeping the abuse under wraps.

Other reasons for the Pope being unwelcome here went unreported altogether by Newsround, and many kids will have been left with the clear overall impression that the Pope is a benign person.

BBC bias was most significant last night during the Protest the Pope demonstration in central London. Although there had been some coverage of the Demonstration during the day on the BBC News channel, including a short live broadcast of speeches outside Downing Street, the BBC chose at 4.40pm to cut away from a keynote speech by Geoffrey Robertson QC, and instead show the Pope's motorcade on its way to a care home for elderly people.

Professor Richard Dawkins' speech was not shown live, but is available here.

The Pope's visit to Britain has been receiving extensive coverage on Newsround. This was how Newsround set the scene on Wednesday at 8.25am -

Leah: The leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope, arrives in Britain tomorrow for a four day visit. It's a big moment for millions of Catholics in the UK as it's the first time the Pope has visited in more than 25 years. Hayley's been to Vatican City in Italy where the Pope lives, to find out more about him.


Hayley: This is the Vatican City. And the man in charge, the Pope, lives just over there. But why is the Pope so special?

Robert Mickens: Well if you think of it in the sense of every family has a father or a mother or grandparents or the head of the family, in a similar way the Catholic Church has a head of the family - a father figure - and that's the Pope.

Hayley: Well the first Pope is believed to have been St Peter, one of Jesus's disciples who came to Rome 2000 years ago. And since then the Pope has been the man that millions of people look to for how to live their lives. This is the current Pope - he's called Pope Benedict the Sixteenth. He's German, and check this out - he loves cats and classical music. Thousands of people come every day to try and get a peep at the Pope, and hear what he has to say.

Hayley: What do you think of the Pope?

Girl: Oh he's a legend. Yeah, he's such an inspiration to people.

Boy1: I mean to see him today face to face was just absolutely amazing.

Boy2: For a Catholic he is, in the Catholic view, God's representative on Earth.

Hayley: One thing you can be sure of is that wherever the Pope goes big crowds follow. So you can expect to see thousands of people filling up the streets in the UK when the Pope comes to visit us at home. (end of video report)

Leah: And while many people are excited about the Pope's visit, there are others who disagree with what he stands for, and with some of the things he's done. To find out more tune into Newsround at 5 o'clock on BBC One.

Wednesday's 5pm programme included Hayley's earlier report but with slightly different edits, after which there was a short discussion about the controversy surrounding the Pope's visit.

Sonali: First, the leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope arrives in Scotland tomorrow for a four day visit to the UK. It's a big moment for the millions of Catholics in Britain, as it's the first time a Pope has visited in more than 25 years.

Ore: In a minute we'll be looking at why there are mixed feelings about his visit, but first Hayley's been to Vatican City in Italy where the Pope lives, to find out a bit more about him.

Hayley's video report

Ore: So he has got a lot of followers. But there are also lots of people who don't agree with what the Pope stands for. In recent years it's become clear that some children in care of Catholic priests have been mistreated.

Sonali: Now the Pope did apologise earlier this year in a letter but he's been accused of not doing enough to uncover exactly what went on.

Ore: Critics say some groups of priests stopped children speaking about being mistreated because they didn't want to give the Church a bad name. So we asked an expert on the Church to explain more.

Robert Pigott: This has been a huge problem for the Catholic Church, not just in this country but around the world during the last few years. And it's because a few priests have mistreated children who've been placed in their care. And I think what's made people so angry and disappointed and to feel so let down is that the priests were in a position of trust - they were trusted by parents to look after the children. And I think people are also asking why the Pope, who is the leader of all the Catholic priests in the world, didn't do more to stop it happening.

Sonali: So the Pope's visit starts tomorrow when he lands in Edinburgh. And thousands are expected to be there to welcome him.

Ore: Hayley will be following him throughout the day for us, so make sure you're back with us for that.

The Pope is due to arrive in Britain tomorrow and, assuming that CBBC decides to report his visit, Newsround Blog will be looking out for journalistic integrity.

Will Newsround explain why loads of people believe that the Pope is a flagitious man who is not welcome here? Or will it instead hide away the controversy, in a similar way that Ratzinger himself tried to cover up cases of child abuse in his church?

Sonali: Meat dress, what d'you think?

Ore: I reckon .. go Gaga, well done.

Sonali: I think ... she's a vegan! It's disgusting!

Ore: She can do what she likes. She is Lady Gaga.

Sonali: Alright, fair enough.

That was part of the banter on Newsround yesterday, after they'd just carried a report about the MTV Video Music Awards.

Not sure Sonali was right about Lady Gaga being a vegan. Perhaps she was thinking of TV chat show host Ellen DeGeneres, who definitely is a vegan. After all Ellen was presenting at the MTV awards, and also interviewed Lady Gaga after the ceremony.

This report, from Channel 4 News, helps explain Gaga's meat dress -



Wonder what Newsround will make of Lady Gaga's new record when it's released. She sang part of Born This Way at the award ceremony -

How beautiful in my way, cos God makes no mistakes.
I'm on the right track. Baby I was born this way.

Perhaps it was because of the BBC Trust requirement that no group be ignored or underserved that Newsround, last week, decided to cover racist bullying from the point of view of a white boy bullied by Asian pupils.

The story resulted from the recommendations in a report (pdf) for Swindon Borough Council, which had looked into the circumstances surrounding a boy who suffered serious injuries when he was hit on the head with a hammer.

Alex Gray, a counsellor from ChildLine was in the studio to answer questions. Ricky asked him whether racist bullying was worse than other types of bullying. Alex responded that racist bullying "really attacks something really really personal to you," and that, Alex said, makes it particularly bad.

Traditionally racist bullying has been treated as more serious than all other types of bullying, but not for the reason given by Alex. Racist bullying is taken so seriously because the bullying, as well as directly affecting the victim, is also seen as an attack on a whole community group, and therefore a threat to community relations and a cohesive society.

Victims of racist bullying can, perhaps more readily than with other types of bullying, obtain help from their friends and family. Kids who, on the other hand, get bullied about issues personal to themselves often feel less able to ask for that help. Hopefully, when Ricky carries out his investigations for Newsround, he'll be a bit more skeptical and won't simply accept what he's told at face value.

Newsround's coverage of the racist bullying story may have given a misleading impression that Swindon's recommendations were applicable throughout the country. This is how it went out on Thursday's Newsround at 5pm -

Sonali: First we're talking about bullying. You can get picked on for all sorts of reasons. For some kids it's because of the colour of their skin.

Ricky: Well today a new report says schools should be doing more to stamp out racist bullying.

Sonali: (video) Three years ago Henry was attacked at his school because he was white. This CCTV film shows him just before he was set upon by a gang. They beat him up and left him with serious head injuries. There'd been lots of trouble between white and Asian pupils at the school, and Henry and his friends had been badly bullied. Henry's school say they couldn't have done anything to stop him being attacked, but Henry disagrees and thinks they could have. There's been a big investigation into what happened and the Report's out. It says schools must find out exactly why someone's been bullied and whether it's because of the colour of their skin. They say schools should keep a record of the race of all bullies and their victims, and the police should be told about any racist pupils.

Sonali: Well watching that on the sofa with us is Alex Gray, a counsellor from ChildLine. Hey there Alex. Now lots of schools are good at stamping out bullying, but is there any evidence that racist bullying is happening more often?

Alex: Yeah, we're hearing a lot from young people at ChildLine who are being bullied because of the colour of their skin, because of their background, their culture, that kind of thing. Bullying has always been our number one type of call that we get. But more and more they're calling us about racist bullying.

Ricky: And is being bullied just for maybe the colour of your skin worse than being teased for maybe being fat, or for being short?

Alex: Well the thing about racist bullying is it really attacks something really really personal to you. So the effect that that has on your self-esteem, how you feel inside is massive. So it can be really bad. All types of bullying are obviously really terrible for the person suffering it, but this is particularly bad.

Sonali: Is there a risk though, that someone's accused of being racist when they're saying a word that they might not actually understand is so bad, or so wrong?

Alex: Yeah, lots of young people will bully other young people without actually realising that's what they're doing. But the thing to remember is about the effect that you're having on other people. So are you upsetting them, are you really hurting them. And just being aware of what your actions are. It's not always a joke at the end of the day.

Sonali: Yeah, just try and think about what you're saying. Thanks Alex.

Ricky: Thanks Alex. Thanks for joining us. Right, don't forget, if you're worried about bullying we've got plenty of help and advice over on the Newsround website.

I've mentioned BBC age discrimination previously. It seems that, barring exceptional circumstances, CBBC presenters over the age of about 30 are simply surplus to requirements.

Two of CBBC's former presenters were, however, allowed to appear on TV for a short while yesterday afternoon, as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations. But we're unlikely to see older presenters again for quite a while. Ed Petrie (now aged 32) made a comeback last year and continuing into 2010, but that was maybe just as a stopgap measure until younger presenters such as Chris Johnson could be found and trained up.

Apparently today is the 25th anniversary of Children's BBC, or CBBC as it's now known.

Yesterday Single Parent Dad blogged that Newsround is worse these days than it was years ago, when he was a kid and it was presented by John Craven.

Here is how the programme looked in 1982 (on 2nd November) -



Newsround today does seem to have shorter stories, many of which are based around sports and showbiz personalities. Single Parent Dad was concerned, amongst other things, with a Newsround report about the tittle-tattle surrounding Wayne Rooney playing for England. That is not news, and certainly not a priority for children to hear about, said SPD.

Now if Newsround had gone into details about Wayne's extramarital sexual encounters, I would be inclined to agree that the story shouldn't have been mentioned. But look at what Newsround actually reported on Monday 6 September 2010 at 8.30am -

Ricky: .. Wayne Rooney is expected to be with them [the England team] despite newspaper reports about his private life over the weekend. ...

and the next day, Tuesday 7 September 2010 at 5pm -

Sonali: .. Wayne Rooney's told Fabio Capello he can handle tonight's Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland. There were worries he wouldn't be up for the match after those claims that he's been cheating on his wife, Coleen. ..

So, Newsround's coverage referred to claims that Rooney 'cheated' on his wife. What could a 5-year-old understand that to mean? Well, it means different things to kids as they get older. At school 'cheating' often means having a steady boyfriend or girlfriend, but secretly dating someone else.

Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter (1945)

Newsround Blog has often queried Newsround's editorial judgement, but sometimes people's private lives are important, and can have significant impact on their public lives. We saw that happen with former England captain John Terry earlier in the year. We saw it again with David Laws and, more recently, with William Hague. And there will be countless more examples in the future. As with Newsround's attempt to censor the John Terry story, editors can end up with egg on their face.

Single Parent Dad says that there used to be a lot of information about animals, and their plights around the globe. News of struggles in countries far away as well as uplifting news from the globe and, indeed, our own isles. As an avid viewer I can confirm that Newsround is still quite good on those issues, but perhaps the programme has come to rely just a bit too much on celebrity stories and football, to the detriment of other news relevant to children and young people.

Newsround wants to know what Ricky should investigate.

My suggestion is that Ricky could try to find out why most CBBC message boards were closed down at the end of 2008, and why the BBC said that it was an improvement to the website. However, I bet he won't investigate that, or anything else which might embarrass the BBC.

Still no news about the William Hague controversy on Newsround. Yesterday Hague tweeted "Thanks for another day of very supportive comments. What was said about me was a big lie which I hope has been nailed. I am enjoying my work." William seems unhappy with something in the newspapers, but what exactly is the 'big lie' to which he takes such exception? Hague was grateful for a few manly hugs which, he says, were taken in entirely the right way.

Ironically Hague once supported a law which referred to homosexuality as "a pretended family relationship." Yet as far back as 1994 he voted for an equal age of consent for gay and straight people.

Since the John Terry affair earlier in the year, Newsround has sensibly altered its prudish attitude to reporting the private lives of football players. On Monday's Newsround at 5pm -

Sonali: Now England striker Wayne Rooney will play in their Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland tomorrow. Fabio Capello confirmed it in the last hour.

Leah: There'd been some doubt over whether Rooney would be on the team after claims he cheated on wife, Coleen. But the player jetted off with the squad earlier today, and Fabio says: He's in.

With Wayne Rooney's triumph in Switzerland earlier this evening, Newsround viewers will now be able to see more of the picture.

Does television harm kids? That was one of the questions on yesterday's Sunday Morning Live. The three studio guests joining presenter Susanna Reid were John Amaechi, Rosie Millard and Aric Sigman. Aric Sigman is primarily known for his outspoken views on kids watching TV. Adam Fleming reported Sigman's ideas about kids watching too much TV for Newsround on 19 February 2007.

The last discussion topic on Sunday Morning Live yesterday was about stoning women in Iran -

Susanna Reid: Are we right to meddle in Iran's decision to stone a woman for adultery? Is it any of our business?

The question was as crass as asking whether or not gay people should be killed. Nevertheless, and despite its appalling reputation on human rights, Iran did pick up some support from one of the programme's guests who had visited the country -

Aric Sigman: One of the kindest cultures, who are terribly kind to children. You never see that on the news. We only see the extreme things. But aside from that, this is really a question about moral imperialism. I think we should obviously protest, but that's very different from expecting them to conform to the way that we do things.

No way was Newsround ever going to report the recent news about William Hague and his friend/advisor, Christopher Myers. But by Wednesday the BBC and the mainstream press could no longer avoid the story. Mr Hague issued a personal statement denying that he'd ever had a relationship with Mr Myers or any man, and informing us that Christopher Myers had wanted to resign because of the pressure on his family.

BBC news reports that day talked in terms of "slurs," "untrue and malicious allegations," and an "improper relationship" between the two men. On hearing the BBC reports many would have taken the suggestion of Hague's homosexuality itself as the slur, and that would especially be true with those unfamiliar with the standards of propriety expected of government ministers.

Unfortunately the total lack of CBBC dramas which involve gay characters and storylines will make kids likely to have picked up on this homophobic aspect of the news.

Perhaps a more diverse-friendly CBBC, with children's dramas having occasional stories along the lines of Sophie and Sian's relationship on Corrie, would help kids (and William Hague) understand that being gay is not unusual, nor anything to be ashamed about.

Regular readers will know that this blogger supports the principles of diversity and inclusiveness. You may also have gleaned that I believe in treating kids with the respect that all human beings deserve. And this is not just a theoretical notion. Take a careful look at my blogs of Saturday April 10th and Tuesday April 13th. You'll appreciate that Newsround should always be careful how it treats kids .....but should have been assiduous having regard to the views of those kids in Liverpool, at a time when it was specifically trying to let kids 'have your say' during the 2010 general election campaign.

It's clear that Newsround's 2010 general election consultation exercise came pretty low down on Hart's Ladder of Participation - perhaps rungs 2 to 3 at most. In general The BBC doesn't treat kids with the appropriate level of respect.

A coalition called 'ROCK' is working towards incorporating the UN Convention on children's rights into UK law. And as I blogged here August 12th 2010 marked the start of the International Year of Youth 2010. Last week the World Youth Conference 2010 was held in Léon Mexico (Twitter). From reports it seems that locals in Mexico treated youth delegates from around the world in a similar condescending way to how Newsround treats kids.

A note on terminology - Children are people under 18. By a common convention 'adolescent' refers to any individual aged between 10-19 years; 'young person' refers to any individual between 10-24 years; and 'youth' to people between the ages of 15 and 24 years.

Should the public be expected to fork out £200 or so to get answers from the BBC? That's what it cost to attend the Children's Media Conference 2010. The Conference theme this year was: New Decade, New Challenges: How can children’s media make a positive impact on kids’ lives?

'Meet the Commissioners - BBC' had been timetabled to take place at 2pm on Thursday 1st July 2010, so if I'd gone along I would have had a chance to ask all kinds of questions to the people who commission programmes for CBBC - people like Joe Godwin and Damian Kavanagh. Reportedly those attending heard that CBBC have "got to be really brave" in what they commission. Sounds good, but what exactly does it mean?

In actual fact I'd already emailed a question or two in June, well before the start of the conference. I began by explaining that, in 2006, I'd discovered that feedback to Newsround from 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds was being filtered out. Next I referred to my discovery that the CBBC Bullying message board had similarly filtered out messages about homophobic bullying.

And then I went on to question whether any new dramas or other children's services were being planned which would, once again, make the BBC inclusive and diverse-friendly.

It's well over a month since I wrote, and I'm still waiting for a reply.

What makes things worse is that over 40 delegates from the BBC went to the 2010 Children's Media Conference, and presumably licence fee payers had to subsidise their attendance, including travel and accommodation in Sheffield.

Those following football news will know that there are a couple of superinjunctions in place at the moment. Some people think that our libel laws are too strict, and that the press should have the right to report news more freely. Early in the year John Terry had a superinjunction lifted, but Newsround, rather foolishly, didn't report what happened until nearly a week later.

In today's Independent, there is a piece about changes to British libel law which could come about as a result of a Bill introduced recently in the House of Lords.

"I don't have an axe to grind. I'm not there to represent claimants, I'm not there to represent the media, I'm not there to represent defendants. My role is to try to act as a sensible lawmaker," says Anthony Lester, who introduced his Defamation Bill on 26th May 2010.

Anthony, who is more usually known as Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC has, according to The Independent, spent a lifetime dedicated to making the world a fairer place for those discriminated against on grounds of race, gender and sexuality. But it seems his primary concern is for "free speech." In Anthony's philosophy anything which, in his opinion, hinders "free speech" can have a "chilling effect" on something or other. So, for example, on the 19th January 2010, he told peers about the "chilling effect" on broadcasters if they wanted the freedom to discriminate, but weren't allowed to because of the law.

More about this in a future blog.

Radio 4's Today programme yesterday morning included an interview with Bob Neill MP, who was defending the Government's recent decision to abolish the Audit Commission on the basis that the Commission had been wasteful. One of the Coalition Government claims had been about money wasted on pot plants.

When Mr Neill was asked: "Do you have pot plants in your department?" he replied after a slight pause: "No we don't. We've just cancelled the contract, for example, for having newspapers in all the ministers' offices, because we don't think that's necessary."

Much later in the day Newsnight carried a report by David Grossman, who had cleverly decided to check on the accuracy of Bob Neill's reply.

David Grossman: A short walk to the DCLG HQ in Victoria tells a very different story - three huge potted palms in the foyer. Busted!

A spokesman for the Department told Newsnight: To be clear, these are pot plants bought by Labour. We have not wasted taxpayers' cash on pot plants since we came to power.

Reminding Newsnight viewers of Bob Neill's answer on Radio 4's Today programme, David Grossman said "This may seem a petty insignificant point to be making - and in many ways it is."

Quite right, David, but seemingly petty insignificant points may be symptomatic of bigger problems. That's true of the BBC, where Newsround Blog has uncovered numerous errors and sometimes deliberate deception.

Yesterday's Newsnight went on to estimate Government spending on plants and flowers over a 4 year period. It turns out that DEFRA spent £79,871, the FCO spent £106,053 and the DCSF spent £174,600

Interestingly the DCMS wasn't one of the departments considered. Maybe that department hasn't got any pot plants, but it could also be that the BBC and the DCMS are just a bit too close for comfort.

How does an institution rightly or wrongly accused of bias deal with those accusations? Well, probably the worst thing it could do would be to conduct its own investigation sidelining the views of its critics, and then itself approve the result. But, believe it or not, that's exactly what the BBC did a few years ago. The outcome was an oddly titled report 'From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel: Safeguarding impartiality in the 21st century'

One unwarranted postulate of From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel was that the Corporation institutionally supports "equal rights for women and gay people." On Page 72 the Report says: Does the BBC's institutional support for equal rights for women and gay people spill over unthinkingly into the way it makes programmes ....

Despite enquiries I've been unable to get a satisfactory explanation for the BBC's effrontery. (see blog on 4 August 2010)

Does the BBC’s institutional heterosexism spill over unthinkingly into the way it makes programmes? That would have been a far more realistic question. And the answer is an emphatic YES. We saw it happen two years ago when Ore interviewed George Sampson for Newsround (blog 16 August 2008) and we saw it again on Newsround yesterday when Leah asked Alexandra Burke if she had a boyfriend.

The Director of BBC Children's, Joe Godwin, is aware that not everyone is romantically attracted to members of the opposite sex. So rather than ask Alexandra whether she had a boyfriend, Leah should have asked, instead, if Alexandra had a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Such an approach would have conformed to the BBC Mission and values, especially the bit about celebrating diversity.

Alexandra said she would, if asked, duet with Justin Bieber. There was no mention of duetting with last year's winner of the X Factor. Maybe no viewers asked about Joe McElderry, but the usual BBC prejudice is another distinct possibility. We'll know for sure when Joe releases his album in a few weeks. Will he even be invited to answer viewers' questions on Newsround? Will questions about 'coming out' or about boyfriends be put to him? I doubt it, but let's see. Over to you, Owenna.

Meantime, whilst on the topic of the X Factor, it seems Simon Cowell thinks Louis Walsh has the hots for Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger. And on 26 March 2010 (5pm) Newsround reported Simon's own happy news -

Sonali: Things just keep on getting better for mean X Factor judge Simon Cowell. He's got a new girlfriend who's agreed to marry him despite him wearing his trousers that little bit too high.

Simon has been known to forget the names of his "girlfriends" .... hope he remembers Mezhgan, especially if this marriage actually goes ahead.

I imagine that Ore's World Cup blog comment that being a Newsround reporter's a difficult job but someone's got to do it! was the thing that landed him down the sewer for a day when he got back from South Africa. But after his penance it seems he's been forgiven, and was again jetting away to a far-off land, this time to report from Singapore on the Youth Olympic Games.

To participate in the Youth Olympics you have to be aged between 14 and 18, so it would be nice to think that Newsround's coverage of the event signals the BBC at last accepting that particular audience groups must not be ignored or underserved.

Today at 1.45pm on the CBBC Channel -

Leah: Hello there. Leah from Newsround here, keeping you up to date with everything you need to know on a very sporty Saturday afternoon.

With an introduction like that you might expect to see Ore report on the YOG opening ceremony, which was well underway by then. But no - and not even a mention of the YOG throughout today's bulletins.

Accuracy is a continuing problem on Newsround. For example on the 12.55pm bulletin Leah ended by telling viewers "we'll have loads more in an hour's time." The screen caption stated "More NR @ 1.55pm on CBBC." In fact the programme began about ten minutes before that, and had finished well before 1.55pm.

Newsround has never reported civil partnerships or gay marriage, but it has reported on underwater weddings. At 6.25pm on Monday 12 July 2010 Sonali told us briefly about a couple who got married underwater in Austria. So it was a little surprising when Leah informed us today that the world's first underwater wedding had taken place in Macedonia.

This is from Newsround at 8.55am this morning -

Leah: Now to a couple who are deeply in love - and I mean really deeply. Here's the world's first underwater wedding. The couple tied the knot in Macedonia in full diving equipment. The ceremony took place in the springs of a famous river there. How romantic.

Get your facts right BBC! Underwater weddings are nothing new. Here's one from a few years ago. And the second picture on this Newsround web page was from even earlier, when thirty-six Thai couples got married underwater.

Last month the UK Youth Parliament held its annual meet in Northern Ireland for the first time. At the University of Ulster Jordanstown Campus. John Bercow, House of Commons Speaker, was there too. The event was facilitated by the Northern Ireland Youth Forum. One of my bugbears is that democratic participation is given such short shrift by Newsround.

Takeover Day will be on Friday 12 November 2010, and I was told on 26th April that this year Newsround is going to connect with the Children's Commissioner. It will be nice to see genuine youth participation in choice of news items, presentation etc (cf. blogs 13 April & 17 April 2010)

In line with the theme for the International Year of Youth 2010, the theme for this year’s International Youth Day tomorrow is "Dialogue and Mutual Understanding". It is planned that Global Youth Participation Week will take place during IYY in March 2011

International Youth Day will also mark the launch of "Yparticipate" a global youth-led initiative providing relevant tools for meaningful youth participation in decisions that affect them (http://yparticipate.org/).

Lily Allen and Joe McElderry. Apart from both being B-list celebrities what have they got in common? Well both have featured on a front page of The Sun during the last week. Lily Allen, yesterday because she's having a baby; and Joe, on Saturday, coming out as gay.


Neither of the stories was earth-shattering, but only Lily Allen made it to Newsround. In fact it was the first item at 7am yesterday -

Ricky: Good morning. You're waking up to Newsround. Let's find out what's going on in your world. First, pop star Lily Allen is pregnant. The singer says she's expecting a baby with boyfriend Sam Cooper, and they're both delighted. Earlier this year Lily said she wanted to quit music to concentrate on having a family. The baby is due early next year.

Anyone who missed it at 7am had plenty more chances throughout the day. At 5pm Ore beamed as he announced "Lily Allen is Pregnant!" and in the later bulletins Leah offered her congratulations to the couple. No-one could be left in doubt that this was anything but good news.

But what about Joe McElderry. No comment. I think Newsround's message to kids is pretty clear.

In early July the BBC Trust finally conceded that the Corporation cannot ignore or underserve particular audience groups. After years of Newsround Blog telling the BBC where they'd got things wrong with children's services, it looked like the Trust had finally seen sense. (blog 6 July 2010)

The decision of their Editorial Standards Committee, published yesterday, not to uphold a complaint about the Have Your Say debate: Should homosexuals face execution? was made in June this year. It was one of the last decisions of the ESC as chaired by Richard Tait, who has now stepped down as a member of the BBC Governors/BBC Trust. In December 2009 there was widespread outrage at the BBC. One piece in The Telegraph headlined: How dare the BBC run a debate on whether murdering homosexuals is acceptable?

Professor Tait used to be chairman of the Governors' Programme Complaints Committee. In 2006 the GPCC, having noted that 'gay' was often used by young people to mean 'lame' or 'rubbish,' failed to uphold a complaint about Chris Moyles who had used the word in a pejorative way on his radio show.

In June 2008 I wrote to Richard Tait to ask about From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel: safeguarding impartiality in the 21st century - a report for which Professor Tait took responsibility. I wanted to know "the empirical evidence upon which a suggestion that the BBC institutionally supports equal rights for women and gay people was based." I asked if he could advise me as to sources for the claim, and whether any contrary evidence had been taken into account.

A reply by the Trust's Head of Editorial Standards on behalf of Professor Tait clarified the position. It seems that "the reference is to the BBC's stated commitment to equal opportunities; it was not within the remit of the Review to assess whether the BBC has fulfilled this policy."

I responded with (excerpt) -

"A person reading the report might reasonably come to the conclusion that the BBC institutionally supports women and gay people, do you not agree? The phrase 'institutional support' surely contains no connotation of policy as opposed to behaviour. The phrase 'spill over' also lends strong credence to this interpretation.

"In view of your reply, does Professor Tait or the BBC Trust agree that the Report could be misleading, or at least readily misconstrued?"

A few days after my response, I discovered strong evidence that the BBC had been discriminating on its CBBC Bullying message board. This evidence was put to Richard Tait on 31 July 2008.

The Trust's reply came on 21 August 2008 and, in short, re-stated the BBC's commitment to equal opportunities. The reply also said that the Trust is not involved in day to day decisions relating to the BBC's output, so is therefore not in a position to comment on the CBBC message board. The email ended by suggesting that further correspondence on the issue would be futile.

One of the BBC Trust responsibilities is to uphold the general law. In the instance mentioned above the Trust failed to comply with that duty.

Now, with new memberships in the offing, hopefully the BBC Trust will take things forward sensibly, making decisions fair to all audience groups.

Joe McElderry, winner of X Factor 2009, has come out as gay. The news was widely reported by the media, but not on any of Newsround's ten weekend editions nor on their website. Earlier in July a claim that Joe McElderry's Twitter page had been hacked also went unreported by Newsround. In general, though, showbiz news is one of Newsround's fortes - the others being sport, environmental news and animal stories.

There is a school of thought that a person's sexuality is unimportant and there's no need to make anything of it. That would be true if we lived in a perfectly tolerant society where LGBT people were fully accepted. And then, of course, Newsround Blog would also be an irrelevance.

Another school of thought says that a person's sexuality is a private matter and not anyone else's business. This argument is often used by faith driven organisations.

We're far from living in a tolerant and accepting society. You only need to check out Joe McElderry's website to see what I mean. I saved this copy of his website message on Saturday. Observe that nowhere did Joe actually say he was gay. That might be because the website, registered to Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd, automatically blocks certain words from being displayed - and 'gay' seems to be one of those words. The comment posted by dsc on 31st July 2010 at 06:01am is an example. Almost certainly referring to a gay straight alliance, it is shown as beginning: I am an openly **** teacher who also advises a **** straight alliance in the US.

So it's ok to be straight, but gay is sometimes still treated as a four-letter word. And that's unfortunately true on the BBC as well. See blogs on 20 May 2010 and 17 June 2010.