“The "simplified" Israel / Hamas on First News verges on being anti-Semitic. War is too serious a topic to ignore important facts and treat as if it's just a minor disagreement between the parties that they should settle through discussion.
Also, a minor point, referring to sub 5 year olds as "kids" is OK but is patronising and not appropriate for older children.”
Thank you for taking the time to leave us your review. First News has been reporting on the news as it happens since 2006 and remains the only national newspaper for children. We are committed to being completely impartial, with no political, cultural, or religious affiliations. Our mission is to be on the side of children, wherever they are in the world, and to give them a voice. Our job in the newspaper is to provide children with factual and accurate news and information so that they can make sense of the world around them and form their own opinions.
We are covering events as they happen with editorial balance and integrity, avoiding overly distressing details and imagery, given the age of our readers. We are responsible in our coverage, prioritising the welfare of our young readers, ensuring that they are informed, but without causing them unnecessary distress, anxiety or alarm.
We are updating First.news/IsraelGaza as new developments take place in the conflict and our hope is that there is a solution for peace in the region, for all children.
First news wants to be the voice of young people and we would never want to patronise our readers. Thank you for raising your concern, which has been shared with our editorial team.
“After years of reading first news I was incredibly disappointed to see the bias in which the Israel/Palestinian conflict and its history was represented, especially after claiming to be an unbiased view. As someone who genuinely tries to present these things from as little bias as possible, it is just plain harmful. Next time, try letting two thoughtful people from different perspectives tell their genuine stories rather than throwing a clearly biased moral authority over it.”
Thank you for taking the time to leave us your review. First News has been reporting on the news as it happens since 2006 and remains the only national newspaper for children. We are committed to being completely impartial, with no political, cultural, or religious affiliations. Our mission is to be on the side of children, wherever they are in the world, and to give them a voice. Our job in the newspaper is to provide children with factual and accurate news and information so that they can make sense of the world around them and form their own opinions.
We are covering events as they happen with editorial balance and integrity, avoiding overly distressing details and imagery, given the age of our readers. We are responsible in our coverage, prioritising the welfare of our young readers, ensuring that they are informed, but without causing them unnecessary distress, anxiety or alarm.
There are, of course, strong feelings and emotions on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Both Israelis and Palestinians believe fervently in their own narrative and telling of history, going back decades, centuries and even thousands of years. With such a complex history, it stands as probably the most difficult issue to report on in our children’s newspaper, and for many adult media organisations. Explaining such a complex background, knowing that we have readers as young as seven years old, is a continual challenge. We could fill the entire newspaper with accounts of the conflict and its history and, no doubt, both sides would still feel we have left out important details and that crucial nuances need addressing. Please know that we are doing the best we can and that we continually check, and double check, the language we use and the way we report both the developing situation and its history.
We are updating First.news/IsraelGaza as new developments take place in the conflict and our hope is that there is a solution for peace in the region, for all children.
“We are a small primary school, last year we wanted to cancel the subscription, when the invoice came in, I phoned up and was told I was too late to cancel as cancelations had to be made in writing 30 days before renewal.
That is the terms; so we paid for another year but made sure I told them I wanted it noted to cancel next year. This year an invoice arrived again so I got in touch but they had no record of my request. Same story, I messaged saying we were not paying the invoice and in fairness, they did come good in the end and 'in this instance' they would cancel our subscription.
I feel it really should not be this difficult to end a subscription, we should get notice when our contracts are to be renewed.”
We’re so sorry to hear you had issues cancelling your subscriptions and we’re happy that it has now been resolved. We do try to be clear on our payment terms and we do send our subscribing schools reminder emails from 90 days in advance of renewals to allow time for any amends. We really appreciate your feedback and will share this with the wider team. If you have any further questions please do email schools@firstnews.co.uk who will be happy to help.
