Although the same-sex marriage debate isn't making the headlines at the moment, there is nevertheless a lot still to do before equal marriage becomes a reality. The main battle, now, seems to be whether an opponent - for instance a registrar who is opposed to same-sex marriage on conscientious grounds - should have special exemptions. This was one of the issues considered in Committee at the House of Lords last night. Of course, if such conscientious objections were to be enshrined in law registrars should also have the right to e.g. refuse to marry divorcees. For some reason, though, religious exemptions are only ever sought when they would result in discrimination against LGBT people.

Lillian Ladele exemplifies this religious hypocrisy. Ms Ladele is an unmarried mother who worked as a registrar for Islington Borough Council. Despite having a child out-of-wedlock Ms Ladele saw fit to use her strongly-held "Christian" beliefs to refuse to carry out civil partnership registrations.

Ms Ladele lost her job and appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in September last year. She lost her appeal in January 2013. The outcome of her case and its implications for equal rights was not reported by Newsround.

Danny Alexander says tax transparency is 'critically important' and David Cameron says the government will sweep away secrecy. All this should be good news, and it would be nice to see somewhat more transparency of the links between the BBC and its commercial partner, BBC Worldwide.

Thankfully some people at the BBC are still quite helpful with transparency issues, so I was eventually able to find out a bit more about the BBC policy relating to the Gifts and Hospitality Register (see blog dated 4th June 2013) - more precisely what is and what isn't acceptable

Here is a quote from the BBC Policy, as it affects senior managers:-

Receiving hospitality or gifts from organisations or individuals

39. Whilst modest hospitality is an accepted courtesy of a business relationship, the recipient should not allow a position to be reached whereby its acceptance might be deemed by others to have influenced a decision or lead to potential allegations of conflict of interest. Invitations to modest corporate entertainment events may be accepted if there is clear benefit to the BBC e.g. to build supplier relationships or to network with other customers / contacts. Invitations should not be accepted if the event is overseas or includes an overnight stay. Invitations which include partners may be accepted, with line manager approval, and provided they meet the above criteria, if there is no cost to the BBC.

Story on Newsround this morning at 7.40am

Joe: The president of South Africa says the whole nation is praying for the health of former leader, Nelson Mandela. He's currently in intensive care, being treated for a lung infection. He's considered one of the most inspirational and remarkable people in history, having helped rid South Africa of a racist system that kept black and white people separate. Current president, Jacob Zuma, says everyone's thoughts are with him. ..

Web report: Nelson Mandela remains in hospital in South Africa

The House of Lords voted on same-sex marriage on Tuesday evening. Ricky Boleto reported on the vote for yesterday's Newsround bulletins at 4.25pm and 6.50pm.

This was how the Lords vote was reported at 4.25pm -

Ricky: Next, to an issue that's divided politicians and people across the country - the question of whether two men or two women should be able to marry each other. Last night the House of Lords voted 'Yes' to plans to change the law in England and Wales, meaning that same-sex marriage is closer to becoming a reality. - (followed by pre-recorded video)

With 'gay' being heard all too frequently in schools as a term of abuse, it was good to see Ricky use the word in a somewhat more affirmative way during his carefully balanced report for Newsround.

Patrick Mercer resigned the Tory whip on Friday in order, he said, to save the party embarrassment. His resignation came following claims that he broke Parliament's lobbying rules.

Of course, Mr Mercer, is hardly the first Parliamentarian to find himself accused of impropriety, and won't be the last either, as we've seen this week.

It's not just politicians who've been caught out. Fortunately, though, we all have a right to know about how publicly-funded bodies and employees make use of the authority entrusted to them.

There are a couple of obstacles to finding out the truth: Certain organisations, including the BBC enjoy substantial and frequently unwarranted exemptions from the need to be open and transparent. The exemptions are bad enough, but the problem is obviously made worse when the public body, itself, cannot be trusted - as happened about two years ago when there was an attempt to deceive me about expenses. At the time I suggested to the BBC's Information Policy & Compliance Department that "a root-and-branch review of procedures" be undertaken.

For a while, things seemed to improve, with staff being generally very helpful and polite. However my more recent impression is that the Corporation is reverting to type, and not being honest and transparent. Certainly some of the things they've said recently don't quite add up, and they appear to have a totally unsatisfactory policy in respect of the Gifts and Hospitality Register. The Register is particularly important because it can shed light on whether an employee might possibly be putting their own interests above those of the public's.

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill will be debated in the House of Lords on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Given the amount of time BBC children's department boss, Joe Godwin, spends visiting North American media conferences every year, it's quite annoying that not one single LGBT equality landmark in either Canada or the United States has been reported by Newsround.

Marriage equality happened in Canada a few years ago, but things are a bit different in the US where, until quite recently, most Americans were opposed. However early in May 2012 President Obama was interviewed on TV and he said that his two daughters couldn't understand reasons for the discrimination against gay couples. He said: "Malia and Sasha - it wouldn't dawn on them that, somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently. It doesn't make sense to them. And frankly that's the kind of thing that prompts a change of perspective - you know not wanting to somehow explain to your child why somebody should be treated differently ..."

President Obama, of course, went on to win a second term in office. And Newsround's Ricky Boleto was there to report on Obama's victory. But, typically for Newsround, Ricky avoided any mention of gay rights issues, including the four ballots about marriage equality which coincided with the Presidential election. All four ballots resulted in victories for equality. Previous similar public votes in the US had always gone against equal rights.

Three of those ballots asked voters whether they wanted equal marriage, but one of the ballots - the one in Minnesota - was intended by its proponents to ban "gay marriage" altogether by adding a clause to the State Constitution: "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota." Things in Minnesota didn't go as anticipated by the homophobes and, within months of the constitutional ban having been rejected by the electorate, same-sex marriage was debated in the newly Democrat-controlled Minnesota legislature.

Rather than accept defeat graciously, opponents of equality still wanted the State to continue its discriminatory policies. Minority Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Kurt Daudt, pleaded for discrimination in marriage to remain in place. Here are some quotes from his speech last month :-

"A couple of words come to mind during this particular debate. And one of those, in particular, I think has improved all of us - and that's our ability to disagree. But one of the words that sounds pretty similar, that I absolutely can't tolerate, is disrespect."

"Disagreeing with each other, in a civil way, does make us better people. But we need to do it without any sort of disrespect. "

"If I made a mistake, two years ago, in the approach that I took, it was that I didn't consider both sides of an issue. I thought about what one side wanted, but I didn't fully consider and take into account, in the solution I put forward, what the other side wanted."

Now, of course, had the vote gone the other way, Minnesota's constitution would have been amended and, in effect, an entire group would have been marked out as second-class citizens. Kurt Daudt and his ilk wouldn't have thought twice about the disrespect involved in the wording of the amendment they'd sought.

Finally one more quote from Kurt Daudt's speech - and this time, it's a classic :-

"Some of my best friends are gay."

The Children's Media Conference programme has now been published. The session on LGBT-inclusion, mentioned in my blog last Sunday, has been scheduled to take place on Day 2 - Thursday 4th July 2013 at 5.10pm

Newsround Blog may well, at some future date, look at BBC news reporting in the lead-up to the House of Commons marriage equality votes on 20th May. For now though, here is a short excerpt from the Prime Minister's live interview, this morning, on Radio 4's Today programme.

James Naughtie: ... You said at the time of your election as leader in 2005 in Blackpool that (this is a quote) We have to change and modernise our culture and attitudes and identity. When I say change, I'm not talking about some slick re-branding exercise. (You're nodding, you remember this) What I'm talking about is fundamental change .. Now, for many people in your party, absolutely determined to stick to their convictions - they're just not willing to go with you there.

David Cameron: Well I don't accept that. I think the Conservative Party has made some enormous changes since I became leader in 2005. We've changed the party. We had 19 women MPs. We now have over 50. We're a party that campaigns on poverty, justice, the environment, as well as the economy and Europe. We've championed and argued about the importance of international aid. To argue that the Conservative Party hasn't changed, I think, is just not right.

James Naughtie: But you know that a lot of your MPs, and a lot of people - activists and so on - party members who tramp the streets in your interest, who say listen, same-sex marriage was not in the manifesto. We didn't know it was coming along. He's just charging on. He's surrounded by a metropolitan clique who don't know what we think. And now you're saying to them there's more on the way.

David Cameron: No, I'm not saying that. I think, you know, the same sex marriage issue, I think it's important. Every country across the world is having to address this. In New Zealand the centre-right government has just legalised gay marriage. Eleven states, I think there are twelve states in the US have done the same thing. I think it's important that we have this degree of equality. And I say that as someone who's a massive supporter of marriage. I think marriage is a wonderful institution. It helps people to commit to each other. I think it's such a good institution that it should be available to gay people as well as to heterosexuals.

James Naughtie: Are you relaxed about the fact that most of your MPs don't agree with you on that?

David Cameron: Well the fact is that this is a free vote issue, that parliaments have to determine. Our House of Commons has just determined that. And I think we should think about it like this: that there will be, you know, young boys [and girls^*] in schools today who are gay, who are worried about being bullied, who are worried about what society thinks of them, who can see that the highest parliament in the land has said that their love is worth the same as anyone else's love, and that we believe in equality. And I think that they'll stand that bit taller today, and I'm proud of the fact that that has happened. ...

* Downing Street clarification

SadieJ has been mentioned a few times by Newsround Blog, for instance, in this review of the very first episode - Crushamondo

Perhaps as a result of careful planning, or possibly by pure coincidence, viewers of the CBBC channel had another opportunity to watch the third episode from series two of SadieJ last Friday - the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. In fact it was shown twice - first at 9.05am, and then again at 12.55pm

SadieJ was touted as an answer to criticism over the lack of LGBT diversity on children's TV. But despite these concerns, not one single episode ever actually addressed the subject of having same sex attraction, in other words what might generally be thought of as being lesbian, gay or bisexual.

The aforementioned third episode of series 2 is called Gagalicious. The episode seemed to try addressing the issue, but in the end it failed - and failed badly at that.

The theme running through the episode was very clear: that everyone should be proud to be who they really are. But that "proud to be" message did not seem to extend to being gay or bisexual. For example, whilst several characters in the series are either dating or "fancy" someone of the opposite sex, not one single character is either dating or has a crush on someone of the same sex.

Children's TV needs to deal with the full range of issues affecting the lives of 21st century British kids, otherwise it becomes an irrelevance and a waste of money. The Children's Media Conference has promised a session about LGBT inclusion at this year's event. We should have details about the session very shortly. Let's just hope it doesn't end up as just another cop-out which, as we've seen with SadieJ, is an all too easy mistake to make.

There has been some positive news in the media world, but LGBT discrimination continues at the BBC. I've written to senior management about the situation.

The Children's Media Conference has told me that one of this year's sessions will address the issue of LGBT inclusion - a welcome development as, in recent years, LGBT children have been very poorly served by the media. At the time of writing there is nothing specific about the session on their website.

Tomorrow, 17th May, is IDAHO Day - the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Misleading kids about a meteor (previous blog) is one thing, but that hardly compares with editorial bias relating to big political or social issues. Newsround, in common with the rest of the BBC, gave unduly positive coverage to Mrs Thatcher's legacy at the time of her funeral. And following the local elections, Newsround, again in common with most of the BBC, fawned over UKIP, brushing aside the Party's sexist, homophobic and otherwise objectionable statements and policies. In fact Newsround's write-up of the local election outcome looks, to all intents and purposes, like a recruiting drive for new UKIP members.

More evidence of Newsround's bias came first thing on Wednesday morning - the day of the State Opening of Parliament.

(7.41 am) "The Queen will announce tough new rules on foreign people living and staying in the UK, when she travels from Buckingham Palace to Parliament today. She'll outline the Government's new plans as part of the State Opening of Parliament - a big ceremony that's like the start of a new school term for politicians. The immigration laws will make it easier to send foreign criminals, and people who want to come here illegally, back to where they're from."

Perhaps realising that their tendentious morning reports had gone too far, Wednesday's evening bulletin at 6.50pm was a little more carefully thought through.

(6.50 pm) "The Government has set out its latest plans for the year ahead. The Queen read them out in her annual speech to mark the State Opening of Parliament - an event steeped in lots of quirky traditions. (video) It's a journey the Queen's made many times before. And her 59th speech in Parliament followed the same traditions as all the others. The doors to the House of Commons, where MPs debate laws, were slammed shut to symbolise their independence. Then, once Her Majesty's allowed to speak to them, she outlined the Government's plans for the year. She doesn't write it, but reads it on the Government's behalf. Plans to impose tough new rules on people from foreign countries, and improving the UK's money problems, were top of the list. There was one break from tradition: For the first time in 17 years Prince Charles was by her side, a day after announcing he'd take her place at a big meeting between leaders of a group of countries with historical connections to the UK - the Commonwealth. It led to speculation that he's getting ready to take over more of her duties. But before she'd left, Buckingham Palace said that was not in their plans."

Two years ago, when Daniel Clarke was deputy editor, he wrote that increasingly Newsround "has a duty" to play a useful and important role as a trusted source of news and information.

Any source of news and information can only be trusted as long as there is no sense of bias.

If you saw a website where one of the headlines stated "Meteor over UK caught on camera," and if the headline was accompanied by what looks like a photograph, is it reasonable to expect a picture of that meteor? Newsround doesn't seem to think so.

Newsround home page on 9th May 2013

You only see the actual meteor when you click on the relevant web report AND THEN click on the video itself.

Because of its target audience, Newsround should be even more careful not to mislead. The editor must do better, otherwise he might soon be hearing the message: "You've been pulled off air - that was terrible."

Hardly a month goes by now when another celebrity or media person isn't accused of sexual impropriety. Yet, ever since the revelations about Jimmy Savile, editors of BBC Newsround have decided that their audience doesn't need to know. Owenna Griffiths was, last year, asked by a very senior BBC manager - more senior than the Director of BBC Children's - to give a rationale for not covering the Savile story. Shortly afterwards Ms Griffiths went on attachment elsewhere in the BBC. Daniel Clarke is acting as the programme's editor until she returns.

There are good reasons for Newsround to cover these abuse cases. But principally to raise awareness of the issues amongst young people who may be, or have been, subject to abuse. Nevertheless, perhaps in a misguided understanding of child protection, Newsround remains silent. I believe silence about child abuse is not welcomed by children's welfare organisations such as the NSPCC and ChildLine, and the problem won't go away by simply pretending it doesn't exist.

Chairman of the BBC Trust, Chris Patten, was interviewed by Jeremy Vine on The Andrew Marr Show.

The Andrew Marr Show - Sunday 5th May 2013
Excerpt from interview -

Lord Patten: ... Dame Janet Smith, the very distinguished judge who's looking at the background to Savile - whether the BBC was complicit, turned a blind eye, knew about what was going on and didn't do anything about it - Dame Janet Smith's inquiry will, I hope, embrace what's happening with Stuart Hall as well. They're awful, awful allegations and stories. And, of course, we look back on the 60's and 70's and we know that that way of treating women, of treating employees, is something that was, thank God, put an end to by feminism, which people used to sneer about.

The last few months have been uncomfortable for the BBC. It started with revelations that Jimmy Savile had made use of the Corporation for his own vile purposes. But it turns out that Savile was not alone, and others were similarly taking advantage of the power and respect they enjoyed to harm children and young people. Stuart Hall is the latest to be condemned, as more staff admit they suspected impropriety.

Rather than helping to alert kids to the dangers of predatory adults, Newsround has remained completely silent. So why has BBC children's TV taken this stance?

Well according to an email I received on 9th April (see previous blog): "the choice of stories, and how we report these stories, across all of the BBC’s news programmes is a matter for the individual programme editors."

But is that always true? Isn't it the case that the BBC sets overall editorial standards and that individual programme editors have to abide by those standards. And if they don't, presumably the editors are answerable. If that is not the case what is the point of having editorial guidelines in the first place?

Perhaps there are a few clues about the culture of the BBC in Respect at Work (pdf) - a new report which has found that bullying is something of a problem, and staff have been too frightened to speak out.

Newsround Blog will have much more to say about this.

Is social media out of control? That was the first 'Big Question' on BBC One's Sunday morning debate this week. But why stop at social media, when the BBC could also have looked at its own 'out of control' editorial judgements? After all the BBC is subject to very little scrutiny - far less than most UK organisations.

Time and time again the BBC makes misguided or wrong-headed editorial decisions. Why, for example, did Newsround cancel a pre-arranged interview with a gay couple on 6th February 2013, giving them only an hour's notice of the cancellation? I believe the couple themselves were told that the story was "not fresh enough." But was it reasonable for Newsround to suddenly downplay the previous evening's historic House of Commons marriage equality vote, by leading instead on the Wednesday morning with "news" that all dogs would have to be microchipped in three years' time? The marriage vote was covered, but only as the second news item, and without the live interview.

According to an email, apparently written by Newsround editor Daniel Clarke, and sent via the BBC complaints department on 9th April, "the BBC cannot comment to any third parties on the circumstances surrounding interviews with potential contributors." I was also told that "the choice of stories, and how we report these stories, across all of the BBC’s news programmes is a matter for the individual programme editors."

If Newsround's broadcast output leaves something to be desired, their website judgement is, on occasion, just as bad.

Have been checking a few things with the BBC, like why it was necessary for both Director of Children’s, Joe Godwin AND his two immediate subordinates (Kay Benbow and Cheryl Taylor) to attend the Kidscreen Summit in New York - see blog on 1st February 2013. This is what I've been told on that score -

Kay Benbow and Cheryl Taylor have different roles within BBC Children’s and were invited by Kidscreen to speak on different subjects and went to discuss different business with different partners. Kidscreen is the premier worldwide conference and market for children’s content and the BBC is one of the world’s leading producers of children’s content. Producers and other broadcasters around the world expect the BBC to attend, hence the organisers inviting the BBC attendees. The Director of BBC Children’s is responsible for the overall strategy for children’s content and is also a key participant in the co-production and partnership agreements which are discussed and worked on at Kidscreen. He is a key figure in the worldwide children’s media industry, of which this is the premier gathering, and as such his attendance is essential to the effective international co-production work, which adds huge value for UK licence fee payers.

Kids today are unlikely to know quite how thoughtless Mrs Thatcher had been to many in society, and very little said on Newsround would have served to enlighten them. In fact it seems the programme was determined to turn a blind eye to her homophobia and Section 28.

One girl interviewed at Thatcher's funeral in London yesterday told Newsround reporter Joe Tidy: "We wanted to come and pay our honour to Margaret Thatcher because she's really helped our country. And so we wanted to just show that we are really grateful for her and her work."

Newsround's numerous reports about the death of Baroness Thatcher rarely, if ever, went without a mention that she was Britain's first and only woman Prime Minister, as if that made her in some way better than her male counterparts. But the truth is that each person's achievements and failings aren't dependent on their gender, race, sexual orientation or other status. After all, is BBC business expert Evan Davis a better (or a worse) journalist on account of being gay? Of course not. Long-term readers of Newsround Blog may remember that four years ago Mr Davis gave kids an optimistic view of future prospects for jobs and the economy. And in October 2010 he didn't notice a £49 billion error, now silently corrected, on this Newsround webpage.

Mr Davis also appeared in the Newsround Special: Hard Times, exactly one month ago, to explain why we've found ourselves in this economic mess. Check it out, and you'll see that he suggests it's down to things happening 10 years ago. Not very perceptive in my opinion. Mr Davis hasn't considered why factories were springing up abroad, and how they were able to make goods so cheaply. Still, despite doubts over his expertise, Evan was, I believe commendably, one of the very first people in the world to come out for marriage equality.

Why on earth does the BBC have a regular TV news programme for kids if that programme doesn't report important stories relevant to kids?

Paris Brown was Britain's first youth Police and Crime Commissioner, appointed last week to represent the interests of children and young people in Kent.

Last weekend it emerged that Paris Brown had been responsible for some homophobic and racist tweets. Ms Brown told Sky News that the tweets weren't acceptable and said "I do sincerely apologise if they have caused any offence at all."

The story grew and grew on the UK news media, but Newsround steadfastly kept mum on the controversy.

Paris and her boss, Ann Barnes, were interviewed for the BBC by Stuart Flinders. Ms Brown told Stuart that she was "definitely up to the job." She said her tweets were taken out of context and were not meant to offend, insisting she'd been "misinterpreted." Paris told Stuart that she is not homophobic or racist, and she doesn't condone drug taking. She didn't want people judging her "based on a few stupid things" which, said Paris, "were not meant as they're portrayed."

Tuesday morning's Newsround was introduced by Ore Oduba -

Ore: Hi everybody, you're watching Newsround with me, Ore. Here's everything you need to know this Tuesday morning.

Now you might think that young people, especially young people in Kent, would "need to know" about the controversy surrounding the person chosen to represent them on matters of policing and crime. But, for some reason, Newsround still had not a word to say. Neither was there anything about the controversy on Newsround's website.

It was only after a press conference later that day, at which Paris said she would be stepping down, that Newsround deigned to report the story - and then only via the website, and only in the most perfunctory terms.


BBC News Channel report about resignation of Kent youth PCC

So why was Newsround so reluctant to deal with this news?

Once again a Newsround editorial decision is seriously in question.

Some people were concerned about SadieJ when it launched in January 2011. Here is one such person's comment from the Digital Spy forums:-

"... In it there is a boy called "Kit" who is suggested will come out as Gay. He acts and sounds very feminine, exfoliates, and lurves JLS. I dont think this is appropriate in childrens programmes. ..."

However, that homophobe needn't have worried at all, because, as readers of this blog know, CBBC bosses believe that portrayal of a gay teen is inappropriate on BBC children's TV. Kit was, indeed, quite feminine. So much so that the subtitlers initially appeared to believe Kit was actually a girl (see blog on 19th Jan 2011) Digital Spy "fears" that Kit would come out as gay were unwarranted. His feminine demeanour proved nothing, and by the end of the third and final series viewers were none the wiser as to Kit's sexual orientation. Nor, in fact, were there any other explicitly gay characters in the series. Here Dede meets her hero Captain Skylo aka Tom Roberts - the "manly but approachable" TV presenter. Tom is, in reality, Robert Evans, the person ultimately responsible for SadieJ.

SadieJ was, generally speaking, an unbelievably bad example of British television. There were three or four reasonable episodes, and the series did introduce some talented actors. But unfortunately there seems to be a complete lack of quality control on BBC children's TV. The poor content standard was evident from series 1, where the last two episodes were mostly made up of a number of short clips from earlier episodes all stitched together in a haphazard fashion into a barely watchable whole.

Despite the awful series 1, the powers that be commissioned another two series. Having got away with it in series 1, it should come as no surprise that the quality didn't improve. In this excerpt from series 3, episode 5, Keith's throw-away remark that everyone loves a competition is the excuse for an assortment of competition-related clips from earlier episodes. And here, in a later episode, Dede's comment about Sadie always causing chaos leads to more rehashed material. Eventually the actual re-use of old content becomes the joke in itself, as you can see here, here and here.

But if you think the problem of rehashed content is restricted to SadieJ, guess again. In fact it is spreading to other BBC children's programmes as well. Look at this excerpt from episode 12 of the latest series of The 4 O'Clock Club. Josh refuses to unlock the door, saying "you've been on my back all term," which serves as an excuse for some flashbacks. Then, after two minutes of time filling, Dexter replies "if I've been on your back it's usually been for a good reason." Cue more recycled stuff. And it doesn't just stop there, the old clips just keep on coming.


Tony Hall talking on Channel 4 News to Krishnan Guru-Murthy
A new Director-General has just taken over at the BBC. Tony Hall told former Newsround presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy that he wants to do all he can to "enable the very best programmes and content to be made." Lord Hall will have his work cut out just to get BBC children's TV back on track.