21/10/2011 Newswatch

week, as coverage of the Joanna Yeates murder trial been intrusive

Welcome to Newswatch. Complaints this week from you might say each

end of the spectrum. We look at stories viewers think received two-

match a detailed attention and some other stories which viewers felt

were not covered by BBC News nearly enough.

Still making headlines this week, the trial of Vincent Tabak who

admits the manslaughter of Joanna Yeates in December last year. He

denies her murder. Here is part of the report on the trial.

10 months after he killed Jo Yeates, Vincent Tabak came to offer his

story. Her boyfriend joined her parents and her brother in a packed

court room. On last week's programme we had

some beers objection to the BBC showing footage of the inside of

the victim's flat. This week, further complaints. Elizabeth

Smears wrote that she finds the headline news and some of the

As the BBC's reporting of the trial been disproportionate and

intrusive? I am joined by one of the BBC's most senior journalists,

James Stevenson, editor of both the 6pm and 10pm news and the Johanna

Paxton, eight BBC the US. What did you not like about the

trial coverage? We are only reporting what was said in open

court? I think they are a few points I want to make about the

coverage. The first was why this particular case was receiving so

much attention? The other. Us warily to do with the content and

the use of what I thought were bolder headlines -- vulgar

headlines. I fail to see how it is informed reporting. I also want to

know why the BBC was resorting to this kind of sensational and

gratuitous reporting? It is what one might normally find in a

tabloid newspaper. You us to bring to gratuitous tabloid reporting.

do not think we are. We recognise it is a difficult and unusual case.

Today the first of your points, Joanna, a white as this case got

coverage where others haven't is a good one. It is one we have been

asking ourselves. The nature of her story and that she was leading an

ordinary life and that it happened to her, it has connected beyond the

way some other cases do. I would like to come on to the point you

make about the style of the reporting because I do not think we

have stooped to lower standards of reporting than we have done

elsewhere and certainly for the 6pm and 10pm news, we have used

experienced correspondents, based in Bristol. We have tried to

balance the enormity of the public interest with sensitivity about the

case. Hard as it is to believe, there were more grisly details that

the court has heard... That is in open court so publicly stated...

Can I ask whether it when covering a trial like this do you make any

distinction between what you report at 6pm when children might be

watching and what you put in the 10pm news? We think about it. The

6pm news has a peculiar status because it is before the watershed

but it is also an adult news programme. If you look in the BBC

guidelines, you will see that there is some accommodation made for the

fact that it is an unusual programme dealing with adult

content before the watershed. That still means quite fine judgements

about what we think is acceptable to a teatime audience as opposed to

a later audience. What do you make of what you have heard? I can hear

his. So clearly. It reminded me of the comment made by a family who

said that their own daughter had been forgotten in the hype that

surrounded the case. I wonder whether that is happening here in

the media hype around the trial of Vincent Tabak. I certainly hope not.

It is a point worth making. Hardly taking trouble and are we clear to

preserve her humanity -- are we taking trouble? As the trial goes

on, we will certainly bear that in mind. Johanna Paxton, thank you for

joining us from Bristol. James Stevenson, thank you.

Reports into the tragic death of British IndyCar private Dan Wheldon

appeared on many BBC outlets at the start of the week. Be they did

three-year-old was described by Lewis Hamilton as talented and

inspirational. He was killed on Sunday at a race in Las Vegas. This

package by Alastair Leithead was showed the next day.

Dan Wheldon was racing for a $5 million prize, starting at the back,

he had to overtake every other IndyCar in the race. He was fast

moving up the field when this happened. The report went on to

show Dan Wheldon's car hitting a wall and bursting into flames

before it was aired, viewers were warned that it contained

distressing images. However they you have got in touch to make this

From complaints of too much coverage, to too little. Thailand

is suffering its worst floods in half-a-century. Volunteers and

soldiers are desperately working to strengthen flood defences to stop

water reaching parts of the capital Bangkok. At least till hundred and

70 people have died in the devastation since July. Since do

floodwaters -- facts do floodwaters, tens of thousands of people have

been forced from their homes. Kevin Jennings wrote to us in disbelief

that the disaster was not receiving Protesters have been gathered near

Wall Street for more than a month and in the last week they have

assembled in the UK and countries across the globe. It all started on

17th September with a small group of activists gathering close to New

York's financial heartland, Wall Street. It has swelled to several

thousand people at times with dozens of arrests being made. The

campaign, broadly known as Occupy Wall Street, has attracted people

from thousands of miles away, many holding signs like, tax the rich,

and against corporate greed. On Saturday, demonstrators inspired by

them set up camp outside St Paul's Cathedral in London. After an

earlier attempt to occupy a Square outside the London Stock Exchange

was halted by police, they went to St Paul's. Many wrote to complain

that the BBC was slow off the mark to report the progress. Even when

coverage of the global protest picked up, it was too little too

Another dealer, Rachel Cadman, based another concern. By covering

August riots more commonly than the peaceful protest, could the BBC be

fuelling protesters did go to extreme lengths to get noticed?

we cannot get it together so that we encourage people to protest

peacefully, it it makes a protesters say, if you want to get

your voice at, you have to go to an illegal extreme that is anti-social

and horrible. So smaller demonstrations have also taken

place across the UK and other cities including in Bristol,

Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is these protest that Robin

What is BBC News's answer to complaints of a lack of coverage?

According to a statement we were given, the Occupy Wall Street

demonstrations have been covered across BBC TV, radio and online

news during the past month. Last Sunday when protest took place in

London, New York and elsewhere, the story featured in all of the main

news bulletins on BBC One as well as Radio 4's evening bulletin.

There have also been numerous online articles about the campaign

and Occupy Bristol has been covered by BBC Radio Bristol and BBC One's

points west. Across our coverage, the background to the coverage has

been explained and the reporting has deflected the language used by

protesters to describe their aims and motives. Last week, we kicked

off an occasional slot in which it in the wake of BBC cost-cutting

proposals, viewers can point out examples of what they see as money

being wasted. Pat Hardy wrote in to highlight what she things are and

necessary travel costs from sending weather presenters to different

Or do you like to see the BBC weather presenters out and about?

Does it enhance the report when the presenter is in a scenic location?

If you have strong views, do get in touch to let us note. Finally,

Robert Cheer got in touch to ask, why do you insist on broadcasting