20/01/2012 Newswatch

Welcome to Newswatch. Later on the programme, we have the science

editor Chris us for being unbalanced, alarmist and

insufficiently serious. Since the Italian cruise ship the Costa

Concordia ran aground off the coast of Tuscany last Friday BBC News has

reported on the rescue operation, the surge of the cause of the

accident and those who died. We had the testimony of a number of free

survivors, including an emotional interview of Derek and Viv Ebbage.

While you are waiting to find a lifeboat, the two of the become

separated from one another? That brought this reaction from Kerry

We put that point to BBC News and they gave us this statement in

Tuesday was 100 here since the days since Captain Scott and his team

reached the South poll on their ill-fated expedition. No surprise

that this was marked on the BBC with a number of items, including

this into beyond the Breakfast programme. Explorers through the

years have recreated a trip that Scott made, 18 other right now.

They are planning to make a commemorative game of cricket.

brought this reaction from Julie Breff McGovern was equally

This week saw the appointment of the BBC's first science editor,

David Shukman was to be given the task of raising the profile of

science in BBC News. I will be speaking to him in a moment. What

sort of challenge as do Newswatch think he will face? -- challenges.

One prediction is that there will be criticism of the BBC's coverage

of climate change. There is clearly no way of placing of the people all

the time. David Murray is one of those who is unhappy. Writing the

An independent review by the BBC Trust found that too much weight

had been given to those challenging scientific orthodoxy on issues such

as climate change as well as GM crops, and the MMR vaccine. The

controversy provoked by Andrew Wakefield suggested a link between

the vaccine and autism got Anthony Allegations that BBC hyped-up

stories has affected bird flu and last year's Fukushima nuclear power

plant disaster. Too much was made of the dangers of radiation posed

Our audience have found a new planet around a distance star

somewhere out there. This week's Stargazing LIVE programme has shown

there is an appetite for science programme. Does BBC News take the

news as seriously as it should? Not Trevor Tonkinson worried --

wondered: we are going to speak to David Shukman, the newly appointed

signs a tougher start first for Trevor Tonkinson, how many

reporters have a scientific background? I have a geography

degree and I am very proud of it. Does it mean difficulty dealing

with scientists and astrophysicists? There is

definitely a challenge with understanding their language. What

overcomes that is an enthusiasm for the subject. Science is very

specialised. A bicycle physicist may not know that much about the

glaciers of Greenland. -- astrophysicist. After all these

years the BBC has appointed a science editor after a science

correspondent. It is long overdue. A number of important subjects have

been given editors to lead the coverage. I think it is about time

that science, an incredibly important part of our lives in so

many ways, has the status of an editor. I know from talking from

scientists and engineers, they have felt too long in the shadows of

this country. We need to bring them into the limelight and give them

the attention they deserve. One of the inevitable hot potatoes will be

the controversies over climate change. You are not pleasing anyone

in this tormented area, how do you approach it? We assess the weight

of the evidence on any particular story. Whether it is client --

climate science are anything else. We make a judgement about the

strength of the evidence, how we are going to cover it, the relative

air time we might give to different points of view. We have an open

door, I hope we always have. Nothing to be shut off. If you have

got 30 years of data painstakingly gathered in the Arctic by the

American space agency NASA, that is a solid body of evidence. We

explain to viewers were there may be weaknesses, that is the kind of

thing, we can apply undue weight. One viewer said the BBC exaggerated

the dangers of radiation harm. Do you think there is anything in

that? Looking at some of the newspaper headlines it was clear

that they were predicting nuclear Armageddon. I would like to think

in now I'm reporting we laid out the context, we laid out the risk

and explained row the dangers perhaps did not exist. I went to

Fukushima six months after the disaster, went into the exclusion

zone carrying a Geiger counter and found no levels of radiation.

Hopefully people will get the idea that our job is to gather the facts

and present them. David Shukman, Venky very much in do. Before we go

too much further into this year, we should mention a bugbear of

Point is taken, 2012 it'll be from now on. Thank you for all of your