:00:03. > :00:07.More from us in 15 minutes, now it is time for news watch. Our viewers
:00:07. > :00:17.receiving a full picture of what is really happening in Syria? -- our
:00:17. > :00:26.
:00:26. > :00:28.Up welcome. Despite recent proposals by a mission from the
:00:28. > :00:33.Arab League, there seems no imminent end to the turmoil in
:00:33. > :00:36.Syria. Since anti-government protests started last March, more
:00:36. > :00:40.than 5,000 civilians have been killed by security forces according
:00:41. > :00:47.to the UN. But throughout this crisis, the precise truth of what
:00:47. > :00:54.is going on has been hard to get out. For the Syrian army is all
:00:54. > :00:58.They will probably shoot if they spot us.
:00:58. > :01:02.For most of the past 10 months, the only way to Western media
:01:02. > :01:07.organisations have been able to report from Syria was illegally.
:01:07. > :01:11.These elite -- BBC journalists went into the country under cover to
:01:11. > :01:21.file their reports. Inevitably that has led to viewers getting on --
:01:21. > :01:35.
:01:35. > :01:44.only a partial view of events, The Assad regime does not like
:01:44. > :01:48.unexpected visitors. We went in on a government trip. Over the past
:01:48. > :01:52.couple of weeks, correspondents have been allowed into Syria, if
:01:52. > :01:56.not perhaps welcome with open arms. One senior observer feels before
:01:56. > :02:02.this reason coverage there's been a lack of balance. I think there has
:02:02. > :02:07.been a change and Jeremy Bowen has really done an excellent job.
:02:07. > :02:11.Before that happened if it wasn't so good. There has been a thing
:02:11. > :02:14.about projecting this thing as the regime against the people. That
:02:14. > :02:21.undermines the fact there are people who support the regime and a
:02:21. > :02:26.lot of people... It is not simply non-violent protest Kenny Morgans
:02:26. > :02:30.the regime. There is an armed uprising. When it is just reported
:02:30. > :02:34.as protest and people talk about the violent clampdown, that has
:02:34. > :02:38.been simplified a bit. The reason filming trips by the likes of
:02:38. > :02:42.Jeremy Bowen have faced strict limitations on where and how
:02:42. > :02:47.filming can take place. But the Syrian authorities have not been
:02:47. > :02:53.happy with what they have seen on air, accusing the BBC of inciting
:02:53. > :03:03.sectarianism and fabricating stories. Some viewers still accuse
:03:03. > :03:22.
:03:22. > :03:25.And the challenges to journalism are many and clear, but are we
:03:25. > :03:32.getting any closer to a complete and accurate picture of who is
:03:32. > :03:36.doing what to whom in Syria? With me is the BBC's World news editor.
:03:36. > :03:41.The likes of Jeremy Bowen have been in Syria this week, but how
:03:41. > :03:45.difficult is it a report under such circumstances? Und there
:03:45. > :03:49.limitations and isn't it almost like a straitjacket? It is not a
:03:49. > :03:52.straitjacket. Let me start by saying I agree with Jonathan Steele
:03:52. > :03:56.that things have not been as good as we have wanted them to be
:03:56. > :04:00.because until Jeremy and Tim have been allowed in, it has been
:04:00. > :04:05.difficult to operate. We would have liked more access and now we are
:04:05. > :04:13.there, we do operate under some restrictions about where we can go,
:04:13. > :04:19.but just this week, Jeremy has been to one area of Damascus, a rebel-
:04:20. > :04:23.held area. We have also been in district 86, an area loyal to
:04:23. > :04:27.President Assad precisely to address the point Jonathan makes
:04:27. > :04:32.about hearing from all sides in this complex story. I know there
:04:32. > :04:37.are always safety concerns and so they should be, but could you have
:04:37. > :04:41.done more to get more people earlier on the ground? Risks
:04:41. > :04:45.sometimes pay off with wonderful exclusives. Her I'm delighted Paul
:04:45. > :04:49.Wood took a huge risk to going before Christmas and report from
:04:49. > :04:55.Homs, the first British TV journalist to in bed with the free
:04:55. > :05:00.Syrian army. You could have done more? A don't believe we could. We
:05:00. > :05:05.are talking about people's lives. The United Nations have said 5,000
:05:05. > :05:09.people have been killed in Syria. You don't deploy people into
:05:09. > :05:14.somewhere like Syria likely. We have done all we can to make sure
:05:14. > :05:18.we provide a rounded picture of what is going on in Syria, but as I
:05:18. > :05:22.say, we take some responsibility for ensuring the reporting of this,
:05:22. > :05:26.but I also believe the Syrian authorities need to take some
:05:26. > :05:30.responsibility to allow journalists to get in and report in a free and
:05:30. > :05:34.balanced way. One thing totally under your control is the use of
:05:34. > :05:41.language and viewers have said the BBC should not be calling this a
:05:41. > :05:44.regime. I mentioned it was a regime, too. Should the correct terminology
:05:44. > :05:50.be government for now because it is a political government under
:05:50. > :05:53.international law? Broadly I agree with that point that short cuts and
:05:53. > :05:58.slang and language like that probably is not helpful, but we
:05:58. > :06:03.should be clear that the dictionary definition of a regime is an
:06:03. > :06:07.authoritarian government and there is no question... The Syrian
:06:07. > :06:10.government is authoritarian, only the Ba'ath party can hold power,
:06:11. > :06:18.only one candidate can stand for President, the candidate of the
:06:18. > :06:22.Ba'ath party, so when the election took place in 2007, the only
:06:22. > :06:26.candidate was President Assad. In Arabic, the term that the
:06:26. > :06:31.government used for the government in Syria translates as regime. I am
:06:31. > :06:34.pretty relaxed, actually, about calling it a regime. Thank you.
:06:34. > :06:38.For for much of last year, broadcasters were also concerned
:06:38. > :06:42.with the difficulties of reporting from Libya. Violence has been
:06:42. > :06:47.continuing there and last Friday Gabriel Gate House attended the
:06:47. > :06:52.funeral of a brigade commander who had been tortured and killed by
:06:53. > :06:58.rivals -- rival militia. The body has become a focal point for anger
:06:58. > :07:02.in this town. In public, the people here say they are fully behind the
:07:02. > :07:05.revolution. They have no loyalty to the old regime, although in private
:07:05. > :07:10.some will tell you things were better before. Whatever the truth
:07:10. > :07:15.of the matter, there is now growing tension between here and the next
:07:15. > :07:25.town and besides are still armed. That piece to camera prompted
:07:25. > :07:42.
:07:42. > :07:52.viewer might call to write to us. - We put that point to BBC News and
:07:52. > :07:56.
:07:56. > :07:59.Elsewhere this week, there were objections to this interview on
:07:59. > :08:02.Tuesday's Newsnight with Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond.
:08:02. > :08:07.say that an independent Scotland would be a beacon of
:08:07. > :08:12.progressiveness. I think I recalled Robert Mugabe saying something
:08:12. > :08:17.similar about Zimbabwe. I don't think, Jeremy, you do yourself any
:08:17. > :08:21.great favours by comparing Scotland to Zimbabwe. I am comparing you to
:08:21. > :08:27.Mugabe. Or myself or any other Scottish politician to Robert
:08:27. > :08:37.Mugabe. Jeremy Paxman certainly did not do himself any favours as far
:08:37. > :09:04.
:09:04. > :09:08.as Derick Thomson was concerned. -- It has been a busy week for the
:09:08. > :09:12.chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten. It started on Monday with a
:09:12. > :09:15.newspaper interview in which he said plans were under way to find a
:09:15. > :09:19.successor for the Director General Mark Thompson. Although the latter
:09:19. > :09:23.has not announced if or when he will leave the job. Later that day
:09:23. > :09:27.the two of them arrived at the Leveson Inquiry whether Chen said
:09:28. > :09:31.he thought politicians had demeaned themselves by getting too close to
:09:32. > :09:35.newspaper proprietors. On Wednesday he said he had asked BBC management
:09:35. > :09:40.for rethink on plans to cut local radio and on the regional TV
:09:40. > :09:50.current affairs programme Inside Out. That would have gone down well
:09:50. > :10:15.
:10:15. > :10:20.with members of the public like The problem is that the BBC Trust
:10:20. > :10:24.now wants management to restore �10 million of the cuts it was going to
:10:24. > :10:28.make to local TV and radio and find other ways of making me their
:10:28. > :10:34.savings. But how? Viewers have their thoughts. One of them
:10:34. > :10:37.prompted by this live appearance of the Local Government correspondent.
:10:37. > :10:40.Good morning. Councils across England are setting their budgets
:10:40. > :10:50.over the next few weeks. At the moment we are hearing about
:10:50. > :11:18.