The Children's Media Conference - part 3

The BBC is involved in a rethink of its long term strategy objectives. One of the proposals relates to BBC Switch:

BBC Switch and Blast!

Neither of the BBC’s current teen offers — BBC Switch on television, and Blast! in the learning portfolio — is reaching its target audience effectively. The BBC will continue to serve teenagers through its mainstream services, but recommends that the Trust considers both Switch and Blast! for closure. Although the BBC should continue to offer high-quality programmes and services which appeal to teenagers, and should continue to commission some content in all media specifically aimed at younger teenage audiences, it should accept that its role in addressing the gap in public service television for this audience group will be secondary to that of Channel 4 and other broadcasters.

On 30 March 2010 I wrote to Jana Bennett to ask whether the BBC would, under the circumstances, be making available a fair proportion of the licence fee to Channel 4.

The Voice of the Listener and Viewer has published its response (pdf) to the BBC's Strategy Review. In it they say they're not happy that children's output so resolutely excludes material aimed at younger teens. They further make the point that, in the past, children's schedules have successfully included such programmes as the BBC's Byker Grove and ITV's Press Gang. The abandonment of entire age groups is characterised as an 'abrogation of public service obligations.'

I wrote to the Trust about an earlier consultation on editorial guidelines, asking why they no longer published responses to their consultations as they once promised to do. I wrote on 16 October 2009 (excerpt):

When the Trust was set up, it used to publish all responses including those from individuals. The reason for that policy was stated like this (in the "Complaints Framework" consultation document) :- The BBC Trust would like to publish as many submissions as possible in order to be as open and transparent as possible..

and on 29 October 2009 I was told: To be as open and transparent as possible, we will normally publish a summary of responses from individuals and the full responses from organisations and individual experts/specialists, alongside our conclusions, on the Trust website following the end of the consultation. ..

It's been reported that the BBC Trust will not be publishing responses to its strategy review consultation, but chairman Sir Michael Lyons will be talking on the subject in two days' time to The VLV.

On 1 May 2010 I blogged about a misleading programme, where I said ..'I have suggested to the BBC that Election: Your Vote breached editorial guidelines, and am waiting to hear what they have to say.'

CBBC insisted that there was nothing wrong with the programme and, bolstering their case, misquoted Angellica as saying towards the start of the programme: "This is the first CBBC General Election Special." In fact those words were never used. There wasn't even a hint of contriteness for the misleading information. It was suggested that I refer the matter to the Editorial Complaints Unit. The text of my last message to the ECU is here.

It might seem that this is making a mountain out of a molehill, but there are very good reasons for contesting the matter. Last December, Joe Godwin, Director of BBC Children's stated his belief that "we are serving the top end of our audience better than ever, especially in drama and factual." And presumably a claim for the 'first ever CBBC election' fits neatly into his contention.

The truth is that Election: Your Vote was not the first ever CBBC election, and neither does BBC Children's serve kids better now than it did in the past. This is not the first example of deceit from BBC Children's. Readers of this blog will recall the lie told by the BBC when Grange Hill was axed - namely that the decision to axe had the overwhelming support of their audience. In fact available statistics showed that most wanted Grange Hill to stay.

A recent series of six factual programmes called My Life is an example of an attempt to bring back cutting-edge informative documentary-style programmes like The Lowdown. But taken as a whole children's programming in the UK is in a parlous state.

It will be interesting to see whether First TV, a broadband-based kids' news magazine manages to make any inroads. It will hopefully be inclusive, diverse-friendly and not make artificial distinctions according to age, as CBBC/Newsround have done in recent years. Presumably Ofcom's junk food advertising regulations will not apply to the First TV service.

The Children's Media Conference - part 2

In part 1 of the blog I promised I'd explain how the BBC has significantly weakened kids' TV. For an idea of what things used to be like in the 1980's, take a gander at this excerpt from the BBC Four miniseries Children's TV on Trial. Controversial issues were faced head on until about five years ago. For example the feature below is taken from Grange Hill's website, as it appeared in 2002:

I am 15 years old. I am an ordinary student here at Grange Hill; yes here at your school. Some of you know me; others don’t; some think you do. What none of you know is that I had sex with an older boy from this school; and I did not want to have sex.

It happened to me on an ordinary Saturday night at an ordinary party with someone I trusted - trusted until this happened that is. And I had loved him too; yes loved him. I won't go into details: that's not what this is for. Enough to say that we went to a room, things got out of hand and went too far. All of a sudden I was in a situation that I didn't want, hadn't planned and couldn't control.

Why didn't I say anything? Why didn't I scream? Why didn't I call out to my friends? They were only downstairs. The answer's not an easy one to put into words. I was frightened; I thought that maybe I'd led him on; maybe he would just stop. And I wasn't brave enough to say no.

He too was nervous, embarrassed and uncertain of what we were doing. And so he said nothing to me about what we were about to do; nothing about what he wanted or thought or felt; nothing about why we should do this thing. And then it happened. Continued/...

Article 17 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child refers to the important role of the mass media in disseminating information and material of social and cultural benefit.

What motivated the changes to Grange Hill, which everyone must have noticed by 2006? And what motivated those people who formulated Creative Future to come up with this policy:

"...Kids & Teens: All children's output including radio, online and learning will eventually be consolidated under the CBeebies and CBBC brands which will be given tighter audiences targets – up to 6 and 7 to 11 years respectively. Create a broadband based teen brand aimed at 12 to 16 years, including a high volume drama, comedy, music and factual content."

On 03/12/2007, Richard Deverell explained:

Prior to 2006 CBBC did not, to the best of my knowledge, have a clearly defined demographic target. This was identified as a problem in the "Creative Futures" work done in late 2005. That project recommended a target age range of 6-12 for CBBC (CBeebies for under 6s and Switch for 13-17 year olds). This change was approved by the Executive and the Governors in early 2006.

[see also blog entry Thursday 8 May 2008] I wrote back to Richard Deverell on 5th December 2007 ...

I'm still rather unclear about what has happened.

As long ago as 2003 the BBC Statements of Programme Policy contained the following channel information:

BBC One a broad range of high-quality, popular British programmes
BBC Two innovative, challenging television programmes for a wide audience
BBC Three delivering news, information, arts and entertainment to a young audience
BBC Four the most intellectually and culturally enriching channel on television
CBeebies educative and entertaining programming for children under six
CBBC interactive, mainly UK programming for six to 12 year olds

So in reality there was no difference in the CBBC target age range after the announcement of 'Creative Futures' in 2006.

In May 2006, when Byker Grove was axed as one of the last remnants of the BBC's service to all kids, you said the BBC had identified a gap in services for older teens. Shortly afterwards CBBC began to further exclude that very age group (by dropping Newsround interviews with them etc) - this was more than a year before 'Switch' had launched.

At a time when the BBC is striving to save money, the idea of starting another kids' brand because of the BBC's own policies seems an unnecessary and completely avoidable waste of resources - though it's obvious that little funding goes on programmes for 13-17 year-olds compared to that spent on 6-12 year-olds or under 6 year-olds. For a guess, I'd say the BBC spends ten times as much on CBBC programmes as it does on older teens' programmes.

If I was one of those older teens I might well feel the BBC had something against me.

We can only speculate on the motivation and on the innermost workings of BBC bureaucracy, but I'll hazard a guess .. the combination of Jana Bennett's prudishness and Mark Thompson's religious fervour led inevitably to a neo-Victorian perspective. There is an alternative possibility, and that is a 'runaway train' mentality took hold whereby people just didn't think what they were doing. However that latter possibility is negated, to some extent, by the deliberate weeding-out of older kids' feedback to Newsround.

Richard answered questions from Newsround viewers after the announcement that Byker Grove was to be axed. He said at that time there were no plans to axe Grange Hill. So how come it was axed less than two years later? Mr Deverell is recognised in the Corporation and outside as a person of integrity, so I don't doubt there were no secret plans to axe Grange Hill when he answered Newsround viewers' questions.

I mentioned earlier that there were changes to Grange Hill which everyone must have noticed by 2006 -- those changes were certainly noticed by Grange Hill fans who wrote to the BBC protesting at the persistent dumbing down of storylines. It later transpired that Phil Redmond was engaged on a long-term project to revitalise the programme. He became so exasperated with the BBC's attitude that he thought they'd strangled his show. Redmond said: 'I think the BBC are downplaying the 30th anniversary of the hard-hitting, socially relevant, rites-of-passage teenage show. That's the brutal reality. It will be a different beast. My preference would be for it to have a new name because it is a new show and a new format.'

Phil Redmond is not, at present, listed amongst the attendees to the Children's Media Conference 2010.

Grange Hill was voted best ever children's TV show in 2008, and last March it topped a poll of kids' shows which most adults want to return. At the time of its axing Anne Gilchrist said "Part of CBBC's reputation for reflecting contemporary Britain back to UK children has been built upon Phil Redmond's brilliantly realised idea and of course it's sad to say goodbye to such a much-loved institution. The lives of children have changed a great deal since Grange Hill began and we owe it to our audience to reflect this."

In part 3 I will show how things have gone from bad to worse with the new leadership in BBC Children's.

The Children's Media Conference - part 1

The Children's Media Conference, formerly Showcomotion, will be starting next Wednesday, so Newsround Blog will be taking a closer look at what needs to be done to rejuvenate kids' TV. Unlike many other industries its decline isn't simply a consequence of the economic downturn. Anyone involved will know that there were problems with kids' TV well before the credit crunch and the recession. So what exactly led to the current situation?

Let's start by looking at what Save Kids' TV were saying in 2006. They said that British children’s television had been widely acknowledged as amongst the most creative and innovative in the world. But they warned that changes in children’s viewing patterns, together with the threat of Ofcom's ban on certain types of advertising to children, would put a huge strain on commercial broadcasters.

SKTV noted that, despite there seeming to be an enormous choice in children’s viewing, the many channels available only offered a limited number of new high-quality programmes produced in the UK with British kids’ interests at their core. And importantly they said "We believe that our kids need programmes which reflect their lives back to them. This is a vital ingredient for a healthy, balanced childhood and to produce engaged and empowered citizens of the future."

Four years on, in 2010, there's no doubt that Ofcom's restriction on junk food advertising has made things worse for the commercial sector. And although the BBC is now one of the only markets for new kids' programmes, few appreciate that the Corporation has had a significant role in weakening British children's TV. How all this came about will be explained in part 2.

Being a Newsround reporter's a difficult job but someone's got to do it!

That's one of today's entries in Ore's World Cup diary. Apparently he's feeling overworked after getting back from a couple of weeks in South Africa.

Strangely for a diary about the World Cup there is no reaction to the outcome of the England v Algeria match on Friday evening. Ore's last entry from South Africa was put in before the match began, and then suddenly he's writing today from the UK studio. But don't worry, says Ore, he's not forgotten that the World Cup isn't over yet. It seems he just flew back to soak up the atmosphere with fans here. And anyway the weather's better over here.

Ore spent the afternoon watching sport on TV. As he wrote at 3PM this afternoon: It's all about channel-hopping! Which channel should I watch?!?!

Whether to watch France v South Africa on ITV1 or the Mexico v Uruguay match on ITV4? And to make the decision even more difficult, there was Wimbledon on the BBC with Andy Murray playing.

Newsround received quite a lot of feedback to their story about the dress code of a school in Harrogate (blog on 16 June) but apparently none from 15-year-olds. Newsround's erroneous link to feedback about a similar story in 2005 was corrected on 17 June 2010, the same day the topic was closed.

Newsround feedback webforms were changed a few weeks back. They still say "Thanks for your comment" but no longer include the promise to put up as many emails as possible.

The above bar chart shows the age distribution of the 157 published responses, not including two from classes. The average age was 12.11 with standard deviation 1.46 yrs.

Last night Prime Minister David Cameron held a reception in the grounds of Downing Street. Mr Cameron, paying tribute to the previous government, said they had made our country a more tolerant and compassionate society. David said there were things you shouldn't have to fight for - equality and equal treatment and respect.

David Cameron: ... I think the agenda now - yes there are still legal barriers and things that we should discuss and talk about - but I think a lot of the agenda now is about culture. The truth is we'll never really tackle homophobic bullying in schools, we'll never tackle homophobic issues in the workplace just by passing laws. It's culture change and behavioural change that is needed as well ...

Mr Cameron's full speech, provided by Pink News -


David Cameron gay pride speech by pinknews

The BBC is hoping to get certain exemptions from new equality legislation, but last year, in a Memorandum to the House of Commons Equality Bill Committee, I suggested that the media is vital in setting society's norms for promoting inclusiveness and diversity.

Newsround at 8.30am yesterday -

Ricky: First up to a school that's banned pupils from wearing skirts. Students at the school in Yorkshire have been told that, from September, they won't be able to wear skirts as part of their uniform. Instead boys and girls will have to wear trousers. It's because there were worries that girls were wearing skirts that were too short. Not everyone is pleased with the decision.

video

Ricky: Well what do you guys reckon about banning skirts? Let us know by heading over to the Newsround website.

But the 'Click here to have your say on this story' Newsround link is, at the time of writing, incorrect, and instead of linking to have your say about St Aidan's High School in Harrogate, links to (published) feedback about a similar story five years ago concerning a school in Dorset.

Luisa Baldini also reported the 2005 ban. I believe that Broadstone Middle School in Poole, Dorset reversed the trousers-only policy a short while later.

Regular followers of Newsround Blog will be interested to check out the differences in (published) feedback between then and now - including the dearth of feedback from 15-year-olds on the current story.

I'm on a few mailing lists and yesterday received an email from GetEqual - a grassroots organisation seeking equality in the United States. The email was about a policy which prevents gay or bisexual people in America from revealing their sexual orientation in the US Military. The policy is an infringement of human rights, because it unreasonably prevents freedom of speech and expression, as well as being discriminatory.

Efforts are underway to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) policy, but it seems that Ike Skelton, a Democrat from Missouri and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is against the repeal because he is worried it would involve a national discussion, and children might become aware of homosexuality. Mr Skelton said "What do mommies and daddies say to their 7-year-old child?"

The email I received stressed that "Skelton wants to pretend that LGBT people don't even exist."

Sounds like this Ike Skelton's got similar worries to those in charge of the BBC. Mark Thompson took over as BBC Director-General in 2004. A year later new guidelines were published which no longer included long-standing advice that LGB people make up a significant minority, entitled to be treated fairly.

According to the BBC, David Jordan is responsible for the development and implementation of the BBC's editorial policy and standards. David wasn't in charge when the guidelines were revised in 2005, but I wonder why advice about treating LGB people fairly was removed in 2005 after it had been in place for ten years. Such a statement could not possibly do any harm, but has the potential to do a lot of good.

Some time ago Ofcom drew attention to the lack of content for older kids, and during last year's Showcomotion concerns were expressed about the lack of drama for those aged 10 and over. Speakers felt that earlier dramas like See How They Run and Grange Hill had been popular because they hadn't shied away from issues like drug addiction and abusive relationships. Participants wondered whether today's drama addresses issues children face in the modern world.

Showcomotion has been rebooted as The Children's Media Conference, and takes place this year from 30 June to 2 July 2010. I don't believe the conference has ever been mentioned on Newsround, despite its obvious relevance to Newsround's audience.

No doubt Save Kids' TV will be making their "jobs for the boys" case, but the real problem is the type and quality of programmes being commissioned - now almost exclusively by the BBC. Never has BBC Children's TV been more misguided than it is at present, and those in charge do not even seem to recognise the predicament.

On Friday Sonali told Newsround viewers that we wouldn't see Ore and herself together in the studio again for a couple of weeks because "he's jetting off to South Africa tomorrow." Ore said he'd be reporting live next Thursday.

In pics: Ore is off to South Africa!

Yesterday's Newsround at 5pm began -

Sonali: Hey guys. You're tuned to Newsround. Tonight you've got me in our studio in London, and Ore in South Africa.

Ore: {via video link} Hi Sonali, and hello to all of you at home. Yeah I'm live here in Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city, where the World Cup will kick off on Friday. It's four days' time guys.

Sonali: Now Ore I wasn't expecting to speak to you till later on in the week, but a big story has spoilt the excitement to the tournament in the lead-up to the tournament.

Ore: Yeah, that's right. I love talking to you Sonali, but unfortunately it has come under difficult circumstances. Yesterday Nigeria played North Korea in another warm-up game here in Johannesburg, and unfortunately 16 people were injured and er including two policemen as well. The tickets were free for the game, so unfortunately too many people turned up for the security to be able to deal with. And a lot people are saying that they .. more people could have actually died, so fortunately it hasn't been too bad.

Towards the end of Newsround, Ore answered question from viewers.

Ore suggested that Wayne Rooney is England's best player, and that Capello will want to mould the team around Rooney. Ore predicted the Netherlands could win the World Cup.

Ore's World Cup diary: Week 1

David Laws

Peter Tatchell was in Russia over the weekend and took part in Moscow Pride, contrary to the wishes of the local mayor who had banned the event. Peter also achieved a significant success this weekend, when the President of Malawi pardoned two gay men. Tatchell was instrumental in drawing the world's attention to the case - a fact not mentioned in this BBC report.

Yesterday Tatchell was one of the guests on The Politics Show via a live link from Moscow. The topic under discussion was the recent resignation of David Laws, and the surrounding circumstances.

Tatchell: .... on the issue of him saying that he wanted to keep his homosexuality secret - well, I believe that someone's sex life is a private matter. But I don't believe, in this day and age, a person's sexual orientation should be a private matter any more than their race, their religion or any other aspect of their lives. You know, we've moved on from the 1950's. We're not in the Dark Ages any more ....

Jon Sopel asked Peter Tatchell if David Laws had brought the downfall upon himself.

Tatchell: I think he really has. And also I feel a slight anger because, while he remained in the closet, he benefited from the more liberal progressive pro-gay atmosphere that many others have fought for, and won because they did come out. You know, others came out and made the atmosphere more gay-friendly. He's benefited from that, but he'd decided himself that he wasn't willing to make a contribution, but he wanted to gain and benefit from what others had done.

Wednesday's blog was about the diversity of modern family life. We saw how Newsround sometimes gets it wrong. But sometimes Newsround gets it right too. On the 5pm edition that day there was a press pack report from Jade about caring for her mum. Jade is a member of York Young Carers Revolution.

Blogs on 10 May and 15 May referred to Nick Robinson's politics in the 1980s, and the suspicion that he was a supporter of Margaret Thatcher's beliefs. I'm still waiting to hear back from Nick, but since those blogs a well respected journalist has acquainted me with Cherwell, the Newspaper for Oxford University students, which also has an online edition.

In the 1980s Nick Robinson was awarded the epithet of Red Robbo by some of his Thatcherite contemporaries. Conservative politics was in a state of considerable flux at that time as discussed in a 2006 BBC documentary called A Burst of Freedom, part of which can be heard here.

Perfect families (part 2)

Shortly before the general election Gordon Brown answered questions on a BBC radio phone-in presented by Nicky Campbell. One person wanted to know why Gordon so often talked about support for decent hardworking families. Why was Gordon so keen to mention hard-working families, and not simply hard-working people? The caller took Gordon's repeated use of 'families' as an affront to those people who were on their own, or perhaps didn't have kids living at home.

In part 1 we saw how Newsround presenters Leah and Ore imagined a 'perfect' Olympic family logo - it would comprise mum and dad holding hands, surrounded by a clutch of happy kids. That, according to Leah, was all about inclusion and including everyone.

Sorry Leah, but that, in itself, is not about inclusion.

Families are diverse. Many families are made up of a mum, dad and kids, but many aren't. What about single-parent families, families with no kids, families with two women or two men, or families in which children are the carers?

Moments later, perhaps realising the truth, Ore proclaimed: "Now we're talking rubbish."

Perfect families (part 1)

Newsround at 5pm on BBC One, Friday 21 May 2010:-

Ore: Hi guys. We are live. It's just after five, and you're watching Newsround. Leah, What is your forecast for tonight's show?

Leah: Ore, I think the heat is definitely on, because we're up close and personal with Iceland's volcano.

Hayley: And I'm on the beach in Blackpool because we're set for a scorcher this weekend.

Leah: But first - you've been bombarding the Newsround website with mascot designs for the London Olympics. We've been asking you for your ideas to rival these two [Wenlock & Mandeville]

Ore: Wenlock and Mandeville are going to be the official mascots, and if you guys didn't have the fortune of catching last night's show - this is the artistic masterpiece that Leah and I came up with.

Leah: I'm really proud of this.

Ore: Well you would be. Leah talk us through this bit.

Leah: OK so my idea was to have a mum and a dad, OK. And in their T-shirts you can see the London Eye and Big Ben ...

Ore: ... big landmarks for London

Leah: ... yeah. There's a balloon. And your idea was to have these bouncing children, yes?

Ore: It makes up the perfect Olympic family. And of course you can see the heads there are the colours of the Olympic rings. I think we've got ourselves onto a winner, LG.

Leah: I'm really positive about this because it's all about inclusion ...

Ore: Yeah .... YEAH, totally

Leah: ... and including everyone, because that's what the Olympics are about.

Ore: Now we're talking rubbish.


Discussion in part 2. Meanwhile here is Out of a Rainbow, Michael Morpurgo's story of the genesis of Wenlock and Mandeville -

The Coalition: our programme for government

The Coalition has published its aims. The Government has committed to push for unequivocal support for gay rights, and to tackle bullying in schools especially homophobic bullying.

BBC children's services have, in recent times, almost completely avoided lesbigay issues, treating the word 'gay' like a four-letter word. As far as I'm aware homophobia has never been mentioned on Newsround, despite evidence that homophobic bullying is one of the most common forms of bullying in both primary and secondary schools. Furthermore messages asking for help about homophobic bullying were excluded from the relevant CBBC message board, which was peremptorily closed down in December 2008.

Clearly a lot more needs to be done to combat homophobia, but as psychologist Emma Kenny remarked: "when things are hidden they can't get dealt with." (blog on 17 May 2010)

Save Kids TV has written to Sir Michael Lyons (Word doc) at the BBC Trust requesting more funding for UK-made programming which, they say, reflects the diverse lives British children lead today, representing society and the world around them in a way imported shows never can. The letter is signed by:-

Anna Home, Chair Save Kids' TV, Children's Film & Television Foundation and former Head of BBC Children's Programmes

Anne Brogan, Director, Kindle Entertainment

Anne Wood, MD, Ragdoll Productions

Bernard Ashley, Screenwriter and Author

Bernie Corbett, General Secretary, Writers' Guild of Great Britain

Biddy Baxter, Former editor Blue Peter, BBC Children's Programmes

Billy Macqueen, MD, Darrall Macqueen Ltd

Carole Tongue, Chair of the UK Coalition for Cultural Diversity, Former MEP

Christine Payne, General Secretary, Equity

Edward Barnes, Former Head of BBC Children's Programmes

Estelle Hughes, MD, 3Line Media

Floella Benjamin, Broadcaster and producer

Gary Pope, MD, Kids Industries

Gillian Cross, Author

Isabelle Gutierrez, Research & Press Official, Musicians Union

Jacqueline Wilson, Author

Jocelyn Hay, President, Voice of the Listener and Viewer

Jocelyn Stevenson, Creative Director TT Animation

John McVay, CEO, PACT

Lewis Rudd, Former Controller of Children's Programmes, Thames TV, Central TV and Carlton TV

Lord Rix

Nigel Pickard, Director of Family Entertainment and Drama, RDF Media, former Controller BBC Children's,

Oli Hyatt & Daniel Isman, Blue Zoo Productions

Owen Atkinson, CEO Authors’ Licensing and Rights Society

Philip Pullman, Author

Professor David Buckingham, Director, Centre for the Study of Children Youth and Media, London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London

Professor Jeanette Steemers, School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster

Professor Máire Messenger Davies, PhD, FRSA, Director, Centre for Media Research, School of Media, Film and Journalism, University of Ulster

Professor Sylvia Harvey, Chair, Citizens' Coalition for Public Service Broadcasting

Russell T Davies, Producer/writer

Sarah Baxter, Broadcasting Group Secretary, Society of Authors

Sophie Chalk, Director of Campaigns, International Broadcasting Trust

Stephen Garrett, Executive Chairman, Kudos Film and Television

Susan Stranks, National Campaign for Children's Radio

Tony Robinson, Actor, broadcaster

Will Brenton, Founder and Director, Wish Films

Newsround Blog agrees with the sentiments of the above letter, but with the following additions:

Funding is not insubstantial, yet the service provided at present by the BBC is skewed, with little or no provision for teenagers and those kids from vulnerable groups. The BBC has been shown to surreptitiously discriminate, especially against older children. There's no point in extra funding for TV if that funding is merely to entrench the status quo.

See also this blog about Phil Redmond's RTS lecture. Phil was not one of the signatories.

Very disappointed to see nothing about combatting homophobia on Newsround yesterday, yet time expended on this puerile piece about the volcano ash problem.

International Day Against Homophobia 2010

In some parts of Britain there's been a disturbing rise in the number of homophobic hate crimes.

What do we really think, as a nation, of same-sex relationships?

That was what Welsh rugby player, Gareth Thomas wanted to find out on Tonight an ITV programme broadcast at 7.30pm last Thursday, and introduced by former Newsround presenter Julie Etchingham.

Julie: Tonight. We like to think we're a tolerant nation, but are we really? .... How easy is it to change hearts and minds?

A survey for the programme showed that 1 in 4 people in Britain thought the sight of a same sex couple holding hands offensive, and nearly half would be offended if a gay couple kissed in public.

Nathaniel and Nick took part in an experiment, in which they walked hand-in-hand down a street in Wigan -

Emma Kenny (psychologist): The thing I found most shocking about today is that, whilst I found lots of people making homophobic comments walking past our couple, very few of them were willing to go on camera and, for the record, state them. And that represents to me an undercurrent of feelings that are hidden, and that's the problem. Because when things are hidden they can't get dealt with.

Tonight - Afraid to be Gay is available to view on the ITVplayer for another 3 weeks or so.

If you've been checking the end credits on Newsround you'll have noticed over the last week that Simon Goretzki hasn't been credited as Deputy Editor. Simon was expected to become the programme's Editor after the surprise departure of Sinéad Rocks last year, but in the event the top job went to Owenna Griffiths, who was parachuted in from Radio 4's Today programme. Ms Griffiths has a proven ability to unquestioningly carry out instructions from her bosses.

Like many, both inside and outside the BBC, Simon Goretzki had voiced concerns about the BBC's poor service for teenagers. According to this article, kids' newspaper First News intends to start a rival to Newsround - an internet-based television current affairs show aimed at 10-15 year-olds, starting this month. It remains to be seen whether anything will materialise.

The Independent revealed in 2006 that Nick Robinson was once nicknamed Blue Robbo. However it seems that Mr Robinson has been putting it about to colleagues at the BBC that he consistently opposed Margaret Thatcher's agenda. I've not yet heard back from Nick (blog on 10 May 2010) but since my email to him last Saturday afternoon a Facebook page appeared with the aim of having him sacked, and #sacknickrobinson became a trending topic on Twitter.

Over the last month or so I've been in correspondence with a senior Lib Dem Parliamentarian regarding implementation of the Equality Act, and this morning I also raised with him my concerns over a proposed constitutional change. Excerpt from my email -

I look forward to your response to my earlier correspondence, but another matter came up yesterday which I would also like to raise with you.

As part of the published coalition agreement between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives, there is a proposal that 55% of the elected House of Commons will be needed to bring down the government and force a general election.

The change seems to be unfair because it would effectively mean that the votes of MPs belonging to the government are worth more than other MPs.

With a 55% target for a no-confidence vote and 306 MPs, the Conservatives cannot be removed even if the Lib Dems and every other MP were to vote against them. Surely that can't be right?

My year-long FOI enquiry (blog 1 May 2010) regarding the broadcasters' request for an opt-out from legislation was granted on Monday, though there are still some loose ends.

As part of Newsround's election results coverage on Friday (5pm on BBC2) Sonali and Ricky reported three 'shocks' of election night. One of those shocks was the Green Party success in Brighton Pavilion. "Caroline Lucas," said Ricky, "became their very first MP ever."

Trouble with CBBC is that they used similar language about an election programme broadcast on 22 April this year. The presenter described it as "our first ever CBBC election." (see blogs on 27 April 2010 & 1 May 2010)

The BBC should sort out its problem with honesty and journalistic integrity, especially on kids' programmes.