The Guardian - 30.07.2019

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:3 Edition Date:190730 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 20:04 cYanmaGentaYellowbl

Tuesday 30 July 2019 The Guardian •

News^3

Waitrose to end

sale of birds

shot with toxic

lead as experts

call for UK ban

Patrick Barkham

Waitrose, Britain’s largest retailer of

game, is to ban the sale of birds shot

with lead, as experts call on the gov-

ernment to prohibit its use.

The move has been welcomed by

the government’s independent expert

group, which concluded that there was

no way to reduce the risk to human

health and wildlife from lead shot

other than by using non-toxic ammu-

nition instead.

After fi ve years’ research, the Lead

Ammunition Group concluded in 2015

that 10,000 children were growing up

in households where they were reg-

ularly eating suffi cient game shot

with lead ammunition to cause them

“neurodevelopmental harm and

other health impairments”. It also

cited studies estimating that 50,000 -

100,000 wildfowl died in Britain each

year after accidentally ingest ing spent

gunshot, mistaking it for food.

On impact with an animal, lead bul-

lets and shot fragment , leaving tiny

particles in the fl esh. Predatory and

scavenging birds, as well as people,

consume the fragments. In a letter to

the Guardian , scientists and experts

including the peer and former govern-

ment adviser Prof John Krebs and the

Oxford academic Prof Christopher Per-

rins have called on the government to

take action on lead shot.

Successive environment secretar-

ies have ignored advice from the Lead

Ammunition Group but a growing

number of companies, organisations

and states are banning lead shot.

It is outlawed in the Netherlands

and Denmark, where shooters use non-

toxic steel and bismuth shot instead.

This month, California banned lead

ammunition for all hunting.

Forest Enterprise England , which

sells wild deer , has been using non-

lead bullets since 2016.

During this winter’s shooting sea-

son, Waitrose will begin phasing out

the use of lead shot on the estates from

which it sources game. By the 2020-

shooting season, all Waitrose’s game

will be “brought to bag” without the

use of lead ammunition.

John Gregson , Waitrose’s senior

manager of agri-food communi cations ,

said: “We expect high standards from

our game suppliers and have been

really pleased with their support.”

John Swift, a former chief executive

of the British Association for Shoot-

ing and Conservation, who chairs the

Lead Ammunition Group, welcomed

Waitrose’s move but said the Depart-

ment for Environment, Food and Rural

Aff airs must take action. “The only

way we can get rid of all these risks

is to replace lead ammunition. Defra

has got to pull its fi nger out and get the

stakeholders around the table discuss-

ing the way forward.”

Journal Letters Page 6 

Jim Waterson
Media editor

British television and radio stations
will be explicitly required to protect
the “welfare, wellbeing and dignity”
of individuals who take part in their
programmes, under proposals that
could radically change how reality TV
is made in the UK – and have a collateral
impact on news and documentaries.
The media regulator, Ofcom, said it
was proposing to add two rules to the
existing broadcasting code to protect
members of the public who take part
in programmes, in an announcement
timed to coincide with the fi nal of this
summer’s series of Love Island.
In addition to requiring produc-
ers to take due care to protect the
dignity of participants, broadcasters
will also have to ensure members of
the public are not “caused unjustifi ed
distress or anxiety by taking part in
programmes or by the broadcast of
those programmes”.
The changes could upend how
reality TV, which often thrives on
showing embarrassing moments that
participants may later regret, is made
and the extent to which broadcasters

changed and the code needed updat-

ing. It highlighted the thousands of

complaints received from members

of the public last summer – often as a

result of social media outrage – regard-

ing Roxanne Pallett on Celebrity Big

Brother , a row between Kim Wood-

burn and a panellist, Coleen Nolan,

on Loose Women, and the treatment

of Dani Dyer on Love Island.

Tony Close , Ofcom’s director of con-

tent standards, said: “People who take

part in TV and radio shows must be

properly looked after by broadcasters,

and these rules would ensure that hap-

pens. These new safeguards must be

eff ective. So we’re listening carefully

Reality check: hit

shows face new

code on welfare

▲ Contestants in the latest series

of Love Island. Left, Dani Dyer and

Jack Fincham on the show last year

MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: ITV/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

eff ective. So we re listening carefully

Jeremy Kyle’s

show was

scrapped

this year

can push boundaries in the search for

ratings. Although the proposals have

been developed partly in response

to the death of a participant on The

Jeremy Kyle Show, the code will apply

to almost all radio and tele vision

programmes other than dramas,

sitcoms and soap operas.

As a result, news reporters and doc-

umentary creators will be explicitly

required to consider the impact of

including members of the public in

their broadcasts, with potential impli-

cations for investigative journalism.

Ofcom said it ha d no desire to

stop broadcasters engaging with and

covering diffi cult topics. It said guid-

ance would make clear that diff erent

approaches were suitable for diff er-

ent genres of programming, although

cash-strapped channels fearful of

being caught up in regulatory investi-

gations may err on the side of caution.

Traditional TV channels may also

be angered by the regulatory burden

when they are struggling with falling

audiences. The rules will not apply to

online-only content on YouTube and

Netfl ix, which remains unregulated

despite rapid growth.

The regulator said “attitudes in

society to welfare and wellbeing” had

to programme participants, broad-

casters, producers and psychologists

before we fi nalise them.”

Issues to be considered under the

proposed guidance include ensuring

participants appreciate the potential

for adverse reactions to their appear-

ance, particularly on social media.

Shows will also need to consider the

use of devices, such as lie detectors,

and the likelihood of unjustifi ed anx-

iety, harm and distress. Producers will

need to off er suffi cient post- broadcast

support, potentially increasing the

cost of making the programmes.

Regulation of reality TV came under

renewed scrutiny after the death in

March of the former Love Island con-

testant Mike Thalassitis – the second

cast member of the programme to take

their own life, following the death in

June 2018 of Sophie Gradon , who

appeared on the show the year before.

In May, the Commons Digital,

Culture, Media and Sport select com-

mittee launched an inquiry into the

wider reality TV industry as a result

of the death of Steve Dymond , who

died shortly after failing a lie detector

on The Jeremy Kyle S how, with many

former reality stars contacting the

committee to raise their concerns.

After Thalassitis’s death, ITV

pledged to increase the level of support

it provide d to Love Island contestants

as the broadcaster sought to protect

one of its most valuable programmes.

It recently announced plans to launch

a second winter series , which could

become one of the fi rst programmes

covered by the new rules.

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