Zog: Royal Mint's new coin to mark dragon's 15th anniversary
Julia Donaldson, the author behind Zog, said she was delighted with the news."When I wrote his story 15 years ago, I never imagined he would fly so far into people's imaginations. "Seeing our determined dragon on a 50p piece would definitely earn him a golden star from Madam Dragon," she explained.
Illustrator Axel Scheffler added: "Drawing Zog with his big friendly face and clumsiness has always been such a joy. "To see my illustrations transformed onto a coin is an incredible honour."The Royal Mint - which produces and distributes coins in the UK - said they were "thrilled" to add Zog to an official 50p coin as part of the childhood characters series.Previous character coins have included the Snowman, Paddington Bear, and Wallace and Gromit.
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Times
21 minutes ago
- Times
Minister criticises BBC for ‘catastrophic failures' after Gaza report
The BBC News chief has apologised for failing to sufficiently scrutinise a documentary, as the culture secretary criticises a 'series of catastrophic failures' at the corporation. An internal review found the BBC breached editorial guidelines by failing to give audiences the 'critical information' that the narrator of Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, Abdullah al-Yazouri, was the son of a Hamas minister. It found that the programme, which was pulled from iPlayer days after it aired in February, breached editorial guidelines on accuracy, but not impartiality. Three members of the film's production company, Hoyo Films, knew who the 13-year-old's father was at the time the programme aired but did not tell the BBC, which the review called a 'significant oversight'. Peter Johnston, the BBC's director of editorial complaints and reviews, found that the corporation 'bears some responsibility' as 'it has ultimate editorial responsibility for the programme as broadcast'. He ruled the BBC team was not 'sufficiently proactive' with initial editorial checks and there was a 'lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions'. Ofcom said that it had examined the BBC report and would be investigating under its Broadcasting Code. An spokesman said: 'Having examined the BBC's findings, we are launching an investigation under our rule which states that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience.' On Monday Deborah Turness, the BBC News chief executive, apologised for the error, which she said had been taken 'incredibly seriously' by the broadcaster. 'I'm sorry this happened. It was a mistake,' she said. 'At BBC News, we are fully accountable for everything that we publish and everything we broadcast, but we didn't run those questions to ground.' However, she blamed Hoyo Films for the error. 'The questions should have been answered by the independent production company at the many times of asking,' she said. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, welcomed the acknowledgement by the BBC that there had been a 'series of catastrophic failures' over recent weeks, including its decision to broadcast punk duo Bob Vylan's Glastonbury performance which included chants of 'death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]'. 'Our national broadcaster is too important for its independence and impartiality to be called into question,' Nandy added. 'I am pleased that there has been progress over recent weeks but as the BBC itself has recognised, there is more that has to be done.' The BBC has said it would 'ensure accountability' and said it had no planned commissions with Hoyo Films. Tim Davie, the BBC's director-general, said: 'Peter Johnston's report identifies a significant failing in relation to accuracy in this documentary. I thank him for his thorough work and I am sorry for this failing. 'We will now take action on two fronts: fair, clear and appropriate actions to ensure proper accountability and the immediate implementation of steps to prevent such errors being repeated.' Johnston said that in hindsight the use of this child to narrate the film was 'not appropriate', but there was no evidence that Hamas or the boy's father influenced the film. He did not rule that the production company misled the corporation, but found that it bore most of the responsibility for the failure. The report detailed at least five occasions when the BBC asked Hoyo about 'background checks' on individuals. For example, on January 12, a month before the programme aired, an editorial policy adviser asked Hoyo: 'Has due diligence been done on those featured to ensure eg the lead boy doesn't have links in any way to [Hamas] — I'm sure it has but critics may raise something and I want to make sure we're completely sure.' The BBC said How To Survive A Warzone, which followed children as they lived through the Israeli siege of Gaza, could return to iPlayer as a series of edited, shorter films. Hoyo Films said: 'We take the findings extremely seriously and apologise for the mistake. Our team in Gaza risked their lives to document the devastating impact of war on children. Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone remains a vital account, and our contributors, who have no say in the conflict, deserve to have their voices heard.' The Campaign Against Antisemitism pressure group called for an independent investigation 'into bias in the BBC's Middle East coverage'. Its chief executive, Gideon Falter, said: 'If the BBC were an accountable organisation, senior executives would be scrambling to save their jobs. Instead, it's the usual weasel pledge to 'update some guidelines'.' He called for Davie's resignation, accusing him of steering the broadcaster 'from national treasure to national embarrassment'. In a note to staff sent on Monday, Turness said that the failings 'did not take away' from the division's wider achievements. Several staffers said that it felt 'tone deaf' in light of the conclusions. 'There have been repeated failures and apologies on getting it wrong on Israel coverage and it seems to always be one way,' said one. 'Deborah's email read like a 'aren't we brilliant, but here's one small failing'.' Katie Razzall, the BBC culture and media editor, said that 'eyebrows were raised' about how the film came to be broadcast having been classified as a 'high risk project' by bosses. Davie is preparing to meet the broadcaster's Jewish staff network on Wednesday. Responding to the review on Monday evening, Downing Street said the BBC must take 'swift action' to ensure 'such errors' are never repeated again. The prime minister's official spokesman said: 'The BBC must ensure that such errors are never repeated and the public rightly expect the highest standards from the BBC and the corporation must learn and take swift action from the report's findings.'
The Independent
31 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ofcom to investigate after Gaza documentary breached BBC editorial guidelines
Ofcom has announced it will investigate the BBC's Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary after a review found it had breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy. The regulator said it had examined the BBC report and would be investigating under its broadcasting code, which states that factual programmes 'must not materially mislead the audience'. An Ofcom spokesperson said: 'Having examined the BBC's findings, we are launching an investigation under our rule which states that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience.' The programme was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged that the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture. The review, conducted by Peter Johnston, the director of editorial complaints and reviews, which is independent of BBC News, said the programme was in breach of accuracy for 'failing to disclose information about the child narrator's father's position within the Hamas-run government'. But the review found no other breaches of editorial guidelines, including breaches of impartiality, and also found no evidence that outside interests 'inappropriately impacted on the programme'. The report said that 'careful consideration of the requirements of due impartiality was undertaken in this project given the highly contested nature of the subject matter'. Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, which also aired on BBC Two, was made for the BBC by independent production company Hoyo Films. The detail of the background information regarding the narrator's father is deemed as 'critical information', which the report said was not shared with the BBC before broadcast. The report found that Hoyo Films did not 'intentionally' mislead the BBC about the position of the narrator's father, but said the independent production company 'bears most responsibility for this failure'. However, it further added that the BBC also 'bears some responsibility'. The report detailed that at the time the programme first aired the information regarding the position of the narrator's father was known only by three members of the production company, 'but not anyone within the BBC'. It said: 'In light of this inequality of information and the opportunities that the production company had to bring this information to the BBC's attention, which it did not take, the production company is the party with most responsibility for this failure. 'However, I do not consider that the production company intentionally misled the BBC about the narrator's father's position. 'The production company has been consistently transparent that, notwithstanding their belief that the father's position was a civilian or technocratic one, as opposed to a political or military position in Hamas, they made a mistake and should have informed the BBC about it.' The narrator's scripted contribution to the programme also did not breach BBC standards on due impartiality, the report said, adding: 'I have also not seen or heard any evidence to support a suggestion that the narrator's father or family influenced the content of the programme in any way.' But the use of a child narrator for this programme was 'wrong', the report added. It explained that in this instance, the narrator 'was put in a position where his narration had to be highly scripted (meaning there was a limited portrayal of his background, story and life) and where he had to carry the rights-of-reply of others, in particular the IDF. 'In light of what the production company knew about the narrator's family and background, putting him forward as the voice of the programme as it was scripted was wrong in my view.' The BBC's director-general Tim Davie said: 'Peter Johnston's report identifies a significant failing in relation to accuracy in this documentary. I thank him for his thorough work and I am sorry for this failing. 'We will now take action on two fronts – fair, clear and appropriate actions to ensure proper accountability and the immediate implementation of steps to prevent such errors being repeated.' The BBC Board said: 'We thank Peter Johnston for his work. His report is a comprehensive examination of a complex programme, the production of which spanned many months from concept through to broadcast – and is critical in laying bare the facts of what happened. 'Nothing is more important than trust and transparency in our journalism. We welcome the actions the executive are taking to avoid this failing being repeated in the future.' Hoyo Films said in a statement that they take the report findings 'extremely seriously' and 'apologise for the mistake that resulted in a breach of the (BBC) editorial guidelines'. They added: 'We are pleased that the report found that there was no evidence of inappropriate influence on the content of the documentary from any third party. 'We appreciate the rigorous nature of this investigation, and its findings that Hoyo Films did not intentionally mislead the BBC, that there were no other breaches of the editorial guidelines in the programme, and that there was no evidence to suggest that the programme funds were spent other than for reasonable, production-related purposes. 'Hoyo Films welcomes the report's recommendations and hope they will improve processes and prevent similar problems in the future. 'We are working closely with the BBC to see if we can find an appropriate way to bring back to iPlayer the stories of those featured in the programme. 'Our team in Gaza risked their lives to document the devastating impact of war on children. 'Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone remains a vital account, and our contributors – who have no say in the conflict – deserve to have their voices heard.' It comes as it was announced that Mr Davie and BBC chairman Samir Shah will face questions from MPs over the documentary, the investigation into allegations of misconduct made against Gregg Wallace, and its Glastonbury Festival coverage of Bob Vylan and Kneecap. The pair will appear before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on September 9.
Sky News
36 minutes ago
- Sky News
Can BBC learn from Gaza documentary controversy?
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 The BBC breached its own editorial rules when it didn't explain that a 13-year-old, used to narrate a documentary about Gaza was, in fact, the son of a Hamas official. A review has found that the independent production company, Hoyo Films, bears most of the responsibility for what happened - but that BBC bosses should have had more oversight of the film. The corporation says it is taking action but, so far, nobody has lost their job. However, it is creating a new management role called 'Director of News Documentaries' as a result of the review. Niall Paterson speaks to correspondent Katie Spencer about the BBC's response - and former culture secretary John Whittingdale tells the podcast that he's concerned the corporation doesn't seem to learn from its mistakes.
