26/11/2011 Newswatch

Welcome. Since the extent of the phone hacking scandal started to

emerge, trusting journalists has plummeted to levels associated with

estate agents and politicians. In response, the Prime Minister has

set up the Leveson Inquiry which this week began to hear witnesses.

Prompted by the behaviour of the press, the inquiry looks certain to

impinge upon journalism. What impact might it have on the BBC

Quest --? I cannot for the life of me think of any conceivable source

except those voice messages. felt like such an intrusion into a

really, really private moment. parade of celebrities and other

victims or brought testimony to a widespread intrusion into people's

private lives. It was too much for some viewers such as Sam, who wrote.

Certainly for Milly Dowler's family it is disgusting. That is on a

personal level. The media like stories about its own industry.

This inquiry is not main news and the media need to start acting as

if it is the story of the year. Terry wanted to see more of it.

With so much interest in the live coverage, while worse Prime

Minister's questions being broadcast simultaneously on three

of your channels? Another viewer had a different perspective which

regards to the Leveson Inquiry. Do you not think the public is hugely

to blame? Journalists Blake -- break laws because they are --

because the public is voyeuristic. Would -- the judge's questions over

the limits of investigative journalism. How the media should be

policed and how to restore confidence. Ramifications for many

organisations including the BBC. To discuss what those might be I am

joined by the BBC's director of editorial standards, by a

documentary maker, and by a journalist and chief executive.

First of all, are you worried there might be some negative implications

flowing from the Leveson Inquiry that might affect BBC journalism?

Yes. Leavis and is entirely right to look at what he is doing. Their

answer of bullying and they need to be looked at very hard. There is no

another type of journalism. My

constant complaint is not this kind of journalism. It is not that it is

too strong. It is that it is too issues of the last 20 years, if you

look at the bankers, the weapons of mass destruction, ask yourself, did

journalists and find out too much or too little? David, is there a

danger that BBC journalism could be unbiased way in which you asked

always be better. It is very difficult to disprove. I do not get

there is a lack of robustness to the BBC's journalism. Yes, should

we do better? It was not the media's finest hour. Roger you are

a documentary maker. You are interested in high media standards.

Are you Werribee could be unforeseen consequences for -- are

you worried they could be unforeseen consequences? They could

be good. If he manages to quantify the laws, that would be a good

thing for ours. The one threat I could see that would be negative

would be that the cost of investigations remains high. The

legal threats are expensive. As the cuts for the next couple of years,

then there are more cuts in 2013, and it becomes a vulnerable target.

You do not know how much it will cost to when you're going to

deliver. Roger makes an important point. It is important that there

is not a reaction that goes beyond what is necessary to solve the

problems that it is addressing and th ths a chilling effect on

those doing investigative journalism in the public interest.

This is really good stuff. The public interest issues. We hope he

will introduce that into the next round of legislation. We need a

public definition of what public interest is. It's with our partners,

we have been leading libel reform. London has become a town called Sue,

leading the world. We have a small section harassing and haranguing.

In the BBC, there is a web of compliance. They're all of these

points that have come out of various mistakes in the past. I

worry that apart from programmes like Panorama and others, they is a

timidity at the BBC and there is no career progression for causing

trouble. Is there a danger, one that that is true, and that it

might get worse? It is a curious time to be criticising a web of

compliance when there is a complete lack of compliance at the moment

that has copped the tabloid newspapers into the situation where

they have to be investigated. In those areas we have got things

broadly right. Lord Justice Leveson may have recommendations. But where

we may have to think about what we do is in relation to the use of

private investigations, although we very rarely use them. If anybody is

doing something on our behalf, that they are adhering to the same

values we have. Roger, some of us made documentaries -- as someone

who has made documentaries for the BBC, do you agree that there is a

web of compliance that may limit the baldness of BBC journalism?

have had both experiences. I have had tremendous support. Compliance

has been terrific. There have been other times when I thought they

were a bit on the cautious type -- cautious side. Younger film-makers

without much experience need to know what the rules are. That is

missing a lot of the time because of the short deadlines. It means

that, for example, a lot of press releases just get recycled without

anybody thinking where the primary source is. I think the combination

of the lack of experience and the pressure of deadlines and falling

budgets could harm the future of investigative journalism. There has

been a bit of compliance around this table today. Roger, John and

David, Thank you. Parents were among the witnesses.

The name of Milly Dowler has been back in the news, which prompted

one viewer to write to us. Why did the BBC insist on prefacing any

mention of Milly Dowler with the words, murdered schoolgirl? We're

well aware of the case and I feel it is unnecessary to categorise her

in this way. Her memory should be treated with due respect.

Mrs Peters had another question. Why is Stephen Lawrence constantly

referred to as the black teenager. Surely this enforcers racial

differences. Everybody knows he was black and this is considered a

racial crime. And another of Yuletide these two

together. See if you can identify the following individuals simply by

the words used. One, murdered schoolgirl. Two, black teenager.

Are they for ever to be known in this way? The trial of two men

accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence also elicited another

complaint following an item on the news at six at the end of last week.

Dwayne Brooks wept as he recalled how the pair were attacked by a

gang who had hurled racial and Bruce -- abuse. He gave evidence

despite his father dying last night. This report contains racially

offensive language. The use of that racially offensive language

offended one viewer. Why was it necessary when quoting him to quote

the actual word when they would never quote the f-word. I was

astounded this was allowed to happen. Finally, Wednesday's

Breakfast had a couple of guests in to talk about a forthcoming series.

Here it is set in a cafe. It stars Michelle Perry who co-wrote the

show. The problem in the opinion of some viewers was revealed at the

end of a jolly discussion. In the Cafe tonight at nine o'clock.

Gray has pointed out many viewers do not have Sky Television and ask,

why advertise on BBC One something that most people are not going to

be able to see? If you're going to do an eight-minute feature on such

a programme why delay after seven minutes and 50 seconds into tell

your viewers that the programme being discussed is on Sky One?