13/01/2012 Newswatch

Well continues watch. This week, arguments over independence for

Scotland have been raging. Debates about the legality, timing and

wedding of a proposed referendum. Did BBC News reflect the range of

views on the subject? No. One : Those comments posted by BBC

Scotland's editors have not allowed We asked News Online and Scotland

have someone could come onto the programme to answer that question.

They declined and gave us a statement saying BBC Scotland has

decided to disable the capacity for To discuss this, I'm joined from

Dundee by another and you were who contacted us. John Thomson, why are

you concerned by the fact you can't comment on blogs in Scotland?

very anti-democratic. It can be perceived to be an entire Scottish

measure. -- anti-Scottish. It is important that the general public

is able to comment on the stories that are coming out from the BBC

Scotland. Have you ever had any explanation from BBC Scotland as to

why they have done this? explanation is the response to read

out earlier which does not really make sense. Since BBC Scotland

implemented this change, there have been very sick -- very few stories

where the comments have been opened up for people to give feedback. The

BBC should be an impartial news reporting organisation. The general

public should be able to going and see why if they're getting it wrong.

The news editor for BBC Scotland has said that they enabled comments

on the main story about the referendum. Is that the main story?

Is at the same as commenting on the blogs? Until a few months ago, we

could comment on everything that went up. Now we are being

restricted to what Daniel and his team seem to think is relevant. It

is like censorship. We are in strange times when the people of

Scotland and the wider UK can't come to Scottish web content and

comment upon it, but we can freely: To a blog about Westminster and

comment on any story we like. It adds to the whole Westminster rule

in Scotland perception. We want a free, open and honest debate on the

matter. BBC Scotland says they are working towards a service when

people will be able to comment live on all BBC output. Presumably, that

is something you will look forward to. It will not do us any good if

it comes after the referendum. Thank you very much.

We also had complaints about the report last Friday. It covered the

news of murdered student and Woosha's parents. We can't

comprehend this tragedy. It must have been an emotional experience

following your son's footsteps today. Can you put it into words

for us? There are no words. The world is finished for us. Several

dealers commented on the question We again asked BBC News for someone

to respond on that point. Instead Joining me now are two more viewers

who e-mailed us about that story. Linda and cliff. First of all and

our, what did you make of that report and what did you not like

about it? I felt there was a very difficult situation for the family.

Travelling across the world to see where their only son had died. I

felt the media were to close. Wasn't there a sense that they

expected the media to be there and that this was inevitably a media

occasion? I still feel that when people are suffering, suffering the

grief of losing a child or a person in a family, they should be a large

-- allowed a bit more time. I felt it was insensitive at the time.

What did you make of it as a deal when you saw that report? I felt

there was intrusive and insensitive. I think the Indian gentleman, the

father of the murdered student, was very dignified in his response when

he said he had no words. I think that highlighted how crass the

question was. The poor man could not reply. He could not say how he

felt. I think that said it all. I think this kind of questioning is a

trend in news reporting now. The engineering of people's the motions.

I think it is unfortunate. wholeheartedly agree. I feel that

many times when we are watching bulletins and news reports abound

victims who are not people who are used to dealing with the media, I

agree entirely. There are many examples. A few years ago, there

was the massive earthquake in Haiti. Recently, there was the earthquake

in New Zealand. Many of the questions in those news reports

were about people's emotions and feelings. Along the lines as, "You

must feel terrible about this." a course they do. Don't you think

that one question carefully phrased as justifiable? If it is carefully

phrased. But going back to the parents of amused bid may, I felt

that was a blunt question and in appropriate. I agree you can ask a

feeling but you have to be extremely sensitive about how you

do it. My point is that I do not think news reporters are as

sensitive as they could be sometimes. Thank you for joining us.

Elsewhere, politicians have been slighted by the BBC. Ed Miliband

has been criticised for not making enough public impact. His

opponent's speech was shown in full. It wasn't apparent the channel was

not quite sure who they would be hearing from. On Monday, it was the

PM's turn to take offence. David Cameron knows how dangerous it is,

not just for an English politician but for a posh English Tory

politician, being seen to dictate to the people of Scotland. Several

viewers did not do it -- for do that description. -- for give that

Last week we, the case of the BBC News website's list of people. Some

people were offended by the inclusion of a panda. The pendant

is not the first non-human to be A poison -- a prized cop was

actually in the list of men for 2009. Perhaps next time they should