- Tim Levell
- 14 Feb 07, 11:40 AM
It's a shocking headline: British children have, apparently, a worse childhood than those in 20 other developed countries, .
And, though you can nitpick about certain details, the detailed findings seem to support the headline. Unicef studied at , and at every stage - whether objective statistics or children's subjective views - Britain came out poorly.
Why? That's got to be the main question occupying policy-makers, journalists and analysts. Many people will be suggesting solutions, but one thing is sure: many of those doing the commentating (myself included) will be writing and speaking from comfortable middle class homes and well-paid secure jobs.
In my spare time I am involved in a voluntary group which has given me some insight into these difficult lives. But I'm still not really exposed to the true scale of poverty, conflict, break-up, abuse, deprivation, lack of expectation, lack of education, lack of support, peer pressure, parental pressure, educational pressure, discontent and dissatisfaction that affects millions of children in Britain.
We got a taste of that last year on Newsround when we talked to children living in deep poverty and made a series of animations about their lives. It's been a privilege to see reappear this week - they tell a powerful story.
But more than that, we believe that on Newsround we have a crucial role in giving children aged six to 12 a voice. One of the problems with today's report is that it will prompt yet more hand-wringing by parents, legislators, journalists and educators. This is definitely part of the problem: the pressure being put on children today. They feel miserable about their lives because they think they aren't wanted, valued and or doing anything right. There's an amazing good-news story about improving exam results, for instance, and yet every summer it's knocked down as "exams getting easier" and woolly coursework. What do children have to do to be liked and respected by adults?
We are working on more ways to allow children to give their side of the story. You can read our to get an insight into what some of our children think. We are supporting the Children's Society, which has launched a to allow children to feed their thoughts into the Good Childhood inquiry. We are thinking of child-friendly ways to allow children to contribute, on their terms, and not just as punchbags in an adult arena.
This is something I care about deeply. Your take on this would be fascinating.
Tim Levell is editor of Newsround
- Mike Rudin
- 14 Feb 07, 11:10 AM
Lots of questions have been raised about 9/11:
Why was the hole in the Pentagon wall so small and why was there so little damage to the outer wall?
Why does it look like there is no plane at the crash site in Pennsylvania where flight United 93 came down?
Why did a building called World Trade Centre Building 7 collapse even though it was never hit by an aircraft?
And why was America so unprepared when terror attack warnings had been received?
Through the internet and the media generally, allegations of complicity by the US government in the 9/11 attacks are intensifying.
We've just finished a new series called which will start this Sunday on 大象传媒 Two at 9pm with a programme about 9/11.
We鈥檝e talked to a number of the people who question the official version.
Dylan Avery, the 23-year-old film-maker behind the internet film Loose Change says the US government 鈥渨ill willingly kill its own citizens for whatever gain it seems necessary and then lie as much as they need to cover it up.鈥
Alex Jones, a Texan nationally syndicated radio talk show host, tells the programme 鈥9/11 is an inside job鈥 a false-flag terror operation.鈥
Jim Fetzer, former US marine and retired university professor, who helped found a coalition of academics called Scholars for 9/11 Truth repeats the Sherlock Holmes quotation 鈥渨hen you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.鈥
There has been an official fightback of sorts.
President Bush is imploring people to reject conspiracy theories: 鈥淟et us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th鈥 which he said were 鈥渕alicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty.鈥
The US State Department has a to debunk conspiracy theories 鈥 not just about 9/11 but a whole range of stories circulating on the internet.
But we found that simple requests, such as asking to see the plane wreckage of flight United 93 at Shanksville, or flight American Airlines 77 at the Pentagon, were refused after months of delay by the authorities.
Yet if we had been able to film the wreckage from flight AA77 we would have had extremely strong evidence that a Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon.
Trying to prove or disprove these alternative theories is not easy.
Officials are loathe to engage, thinking that any response will only fan the flames of popular conspiracy theories, and yet no response seems to be worse still.
9/11: The Conspiracy Files travels across the United States investigating the allegations and talking to witnesses wherever possible.
Ultimately you can鈥檛 beat speaking to eyewitnesses, such as the local coroner at Shanksville, Wally Miller.
Wally Miller tells the programme how comments he made about the wreckage at Shanksville have been misquoted on the internet by people who do not 鈥渢ake the trouble to come here and ask me about it.鈥
Miller is quoted as saying, 鈥淚 stopped being coroner after about 20 minutes because there were no bodies there鈥; yet he also said it was perfectly clear that the manner of death was a plane crash, and the point he was trying to make was that it had become a large funeral service.
The Conspiracy Files also talked to Senator Bob Graham who co-chaired the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 which detailed the failure of the CIA and FBI to use intelligence it had received about Al Qaeda before the attacks.
Senator Graham told us there was a 鈥渃ollaboration of efforts among agencies and the administration to keep information out of the public鈥檚 hands.鈥
鈥淲ithin 9/11 there are too many secrets鈥 adding that 鈥渨ithholding of those secrets has eroded public confidence鈥 in security鈥.
And crucially we may not have learned about that conspiracy without the questioning of every aspect of the official version.
Mike Rudin, series producer of Who's Watching You and The Conspiracy Files
Daily Telegraph: 鈥淭he 大象传媒 has spent another 拢700,000 of licence payers' money replacing its on-screen links between programmes.鈥 ()
The Guardian: Simon Jenkins comments on 大象传媒 coverage of the bird flu outbreak in Suffolk. ()
