:00:19. > :00:25.Well continues watch. This week, arguments over independence for
:00:25. > :00:29.Scotland have been raging. Debates about the legality, timing and
:00:29. > :00:39.wedding of a proposed referendum. Did BBC News reflect the range of
:00:39. > :00:57.
:00:57. > :01:07.views on the subject? No. One : Those comments posted by BBC
:01:07. > :01:14.
:01:14. > :01:17.Scotland's editors have not allowed We asked News Online and Scotland
:01:17. > :01:24.have someone could come onto the programme to answer that question.
:01:24. > :01:34.They declined and gave us a statement saying BBC Scotland has
:01:34. > :01:52.
:01:52. > :01:58.decided to disable the capacity for To discuss this, I'm joined from
:01:58. > :02:05.Dundee by another and you were who contacted us. John Thomson, why are
:02:05. > :02:09.you concerned by the fact you can't comment on blogs in Scotland?
:02:09. > :02:18.very anti-democratic. It can be perceived to be an entire Scottish
:02:18. > :02:24.measure. -- anti-Scottish. It is important that the general public
:02:24. > :02:28.is able to comment on the stories that are coming out from the BBC
:02:28. > :02:34.Scotland. Have you ever had any explanation from BBC Scotland as to
:02:34. > :02:42.why they have done this? explanation is the response to read
:02:42. > :02:49.out earlier which does not really make sense. Since BBC Scotland
:02:49. > :02:54.implemented this change, there have been very sick -- very few stories
:02:54. > :03:01.where the comments have been opened up for people to give feedback. The
:03:01. > :03:11.BBC should be an impartial news reporting organisation. The general
:03:11. > :03:12.
:03:12. > :03:17.public should be able to going and see why if they're getting it wrong.
:03:17. > :03:24.The news editor for BBC Scotland has said that they enabled comments
:03:24. > :03:29.on the main story about the referendum. Is that the main story?
:03:29. > :03:35.Is at the same as commenting on the blogs? Until a few months ago, we
:03:35. > :03:40.could comment on everything that went up. Now we are being
:03:40. > :03:45.restricted to what Daniel and his team seem to think is relevant. It
:03:45. > :03:49.is like censorship. We are in strange times when the people of
:03:49. > :03:55.Scotland and the wider UK can't come to Scottish web content and
:03:56. > :04:03.comment upon it, but we can freely: To a blog about Westminster and
:04:03. > :04:08.comment on any story we like. It adds to the whole Westminster rule
:04:08. > :04:15.in Scotland perception. We want a free, open and honest debate on the
:04:15. > :04:20.matter. BBC Scotland says they are working towards a service when
:04:20. > :04:27.people will be able to comment live on all BBC output. Presumably, that
:04:27. > :04:32.is something you will look forward to. It will not do us any good if
:04:32. > :04:42.it comes after the referendum. Thank you very much.
:04:42. > :04:44.
:04:44. > :04:50.We also had complaints about the report last Friday. It covered the
:04:50. > :04:56.news of murdered student and Woosha's parents. We can't
:04:56. > :05:00.comprehend this tragedy. It must have been an emotional experience
:05:00. > :05:09.following your son's footsteps today. Can you put it into words
:05:09. > :05:19.for us? There are no words. The world is finished for us. Several
:05:19. > :05:25.
:05:25. > :05:35.dealers commented on the question We again asked BBC News for someone
:05:35. > :05:54.
:05:54. > :06:02.to respond on that point. Instead Joining me now are two more viewers
:06:02. > :06:05.who e-mailed us about that story. Linda and cliff. First of all and
:06:05. > :06:12.our, what did you make of that report and what did you not like
:06:12. > :06:16.about it? I felt there was a very difficult situation for the family.
:06:16. > :06:21.Travelling across the world to see where their only son had died. I
:06:21. > :06:26.felt the media were to close. Wasn't there a sense that they
:06:26. > :06:33.expected the media to be there and that this was inevitably a media
:06:33. > :06:39.occasion? I still feel that when people are suffering, suffering the
:06:39. > :06:46.grief of losing a child or a person in a family, they should be a large
:06:46. > :06:51.-- allowed a bit more time. I felt it was insensitive at the time.
:06:51. > :06:57.What did you make of it as a deal when you saw that report? I felt
:06:57. > :07:01.there was intrusive and insensitive. I think the Indian gentleman, the
:07:01. > :07:08.father of the murdered student, was very dignified in his response when
:07:08. > :07:18.he said he had no words. I think that highlighted how crass the
:07:18. > :07:18.
:07:18. > :07:25.question was. The poor man could not reply. He could not say how he
:07:25. > :07:30.felt. I think that said it all. I think this kind of questioning is a
:07:30. > :07:36.trend in news reporting now. The engineering of people's the motions.
:07:36. > :07:43.I think it is unfortunate. wholeheartedly agree. I feel that
:07:43. > :07:47.many times when we are watching bulletins and news reports abound
:07:47. > :07:55.victims who are not people who are used to dealing with the media, I
:07:55. > :08:00.agree entirely. There are many examples. A few years ago, there
:08:00. > :08:07.was the massive earthquake in Haiti. Recently, there was the earthquake
:08:07. > :08:15.in New Zealand. Many of the questions in those news reports
:08:15. > :08:23.were about people's emotions and feelings. Along the lines as, "You
:08:23. > :08:28.must feel terrible about this." a course they do. Don't you think
:08:28. > :08:35.that one question carefully phrased as justifiable? If it is carefully
:08:35. > :08:43.phrased. But going back to the parents of amused bid may, I felt
:08:43. > :08:50.that was a blunt question and in appropriate. I agree you can ask a
:08:50. > :08:55.feeling but you have to be extremely sensitive about how you
:08:55. > :09:02.do it. My point is that I do not think news reporters are as
:09:02. > :09:09.sensitive as they could be sometimes. Thank you for joining us.
:09:09. > :09:18.Elsewhere, politicians have been slighted by the BBC. Ed Miliband
:09:18. > :09:24.has been criticised for not making enough public impact. His
:09:24. > :09:29.opponent's speech was shown in full. It wasn't apparent the channel was
:09:29. > :09:35.not quite sure who they would be hearing from. On Monday, it was the
:09:35. > :09:42.PM's turn to take offence. David Cameron knows how dangerous it is,
:09:42. > :09:47.not just for an English politician but for a posh English Tory
:09:47. > :09:53.politician, being seen to dictate to the people of Scotland. Several
:09:53. > :10:03.viewers did not do it -- for do that description. -- for give that
:10:03. > :10:21.
:10:21. > :10:30.Last week we, the case of the BBC News website's list of people. Some
:10:30. > :10:40.people were offended by the inclusion of a panda. The pendant
:10:40. > :11:09.
:11:09. > :11:14.is not the first non-human to be A poison -- a prized cop was
:11:14. > :11:20.actually in the list of men for 2009. Perhaps next time they should