27/01/2012 Newswatch

More from us in 15 minutes, now it is time for news watch. Our viewers

receiving a full picture of what is really happening in Syria? -- our

Up welcome. Despite recent proposals by a mission from the

Arab League, there seems no imminent end to the turmoil in

Syria. Since anti-government protests started last March, more

than 5,000 civilians have been killed by security forces according

to the UN. But throughout this crisis, the precise truth of what

is going on has been hard to get out. For the Syrian army is all

They will probably shoot if they spot us.

For most of the past 10 months, the only way to Western media

organisations have been able to report from Syria was illegally.

These elite -- BBC journalists went into the country under cover to

file their reports. Inevitably that has led to viewers getting on --

only a partial view of events, The Assad regime does not like

unexpected visitors. We went in on a government trip. Over the past

couple of weeks, correspondents have been allowed into Syria, if

not perhaps welcome with open arms. One senior observer feels before

this reason coverage there's been a lack of balance. I think there has

been a change and Jeremy Bowen has really done an excellent job.

Before that happened if it wasn't so good. There has been a thing

about projecting this thing as the regime against the people. That

undermines the fact there are people who support the regime and a

lot of people... It is not simply non-violent protest Kenny Morgans

the regime. There is an armed uprising. When it is just reported

as protest and people talk about the violent clampdown, that has

been simplified a bit. The reason filming trips by the likes of

Jeremy Bowen have faced strict limitations on where and how

filming can take place. But the Syrian authorities have not been

happy with what they have seen on air, accusing the BBC of inciting

sectarianism and fabricating stories. Some viewers still accuse

And the challenges to journalism are many and clear, but are we

getting any closer to a complete and accurate picture of who is

doing what to whom in Syria? With me is the BBC's World news editor.

The likes of Jeremy Bowen have been in Syria this week, but how

difficult is it a report under such circumstances? Und there

limitations and isn't it almost like a straitjacket? It is not a

straitjacket. Let me start by saying I agree with Jonathan Steele

that things have not been as good as we have wanted them to be

because until Jeremy and Tim have been allowed in, it has been

difficult to operate. We would have liked more access and now we are

there, we do operate under some restrictions about where we can go,

but just this week, Jeremy has been to one area of Damascus, a rebel-

held area. We have also been in district 86, an area loyal to

President Assad precisely to address the point Jonathan makes

about hearing from all sides in this complex story. I know there

are always safety concerns and so they should be, but could you have

done more to get more people earlier on the ground? Risks

sometimes pay off with wonderful exclusives. Her I'm delighted Paul

Wood took a huge risk to going before Christmas and report from

Homs, the first British TV journalist to in bed with the free

Syrian army. You could have done more? A don't believe we could. We

are talking about people's lives. The United Nations have said 5,000

people have been killed in Syria. You don't deploy people into

somewhere like Syria likely. We have done all we can to make sure

we provide a rounded picture of what is going on in Syria, but as I

say, we take some responsibility for ensuring the reporting of this,

but I also believe the Syrian authorities need to take some

responsibility to allow journalists to get in and report in a free and

balanced way. One thing totally under your control is the use of

language and viewers have said the BBC should not be calling this a

regime. I mentioned it was a regime, too. Should the correct terminology

be government for now because it is a political government under

international law? Broadly I agree with that point that short cuts and

slang and language like that probably is not helpful, but we

should be clear that the dictionary definition of a regime is an

authoritarian government and there is no question... The Syrian

government is authoritarian, only the Ba'ath party can hold power,

only one candidate can stand for President, the candidate of the

Ba'ath party, so when the election took place in 2007, the only

candidate was President Assad. In Arabic, the term that the

government used for the government in Syria translates as regime. I am

pretty relaxed, actually, about calling it a regime. Thank you.

For for much of last year, broadcasters were also concerned

with the difficulties of reporting from Libya. Violence has been

continuing there and last Friday Gabriel Gate House attended the

funeral of a brigade commander who had been tortured and killed by

rivals -- rival militia. The body has become a focal point for anger

in this town. In public, the people here say they are fully behind the

revolution. They have no loyalty to the old regime, although in private

some will tell you things were better before. Whatever the truth

of the matter, there is now growing tension between here and the next

town and besides are still armed. That piece to camera prompted

viewer might call to write to us. - We put that point to BBC News and

Elsewhere this week, there were objections to this interview on

Tuesday's Newsnight with Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond.

say that an independent Scotland would be a beacon of

progressiveness. I think I recalled Robert Mugabe saying something

similar about Zimbabwe. I don't think, Jeremy, you do yourself any

great favours by comparing Scotland to Zimbabwe. I am comparing you to

Mugabe. Or myself or any other Scottish politician to Robert

Mugabe. Jeremy Paxman certainly did not do himself any favours as far

as Derick Thomson was concerned. -- It has been a busy week for the

chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten. It started on Monday with a

newspaper interview in which he said plans were under way to find a

successor for the Director General Mark Thompson. Although the latter

has not announced if or when he will leave the job. Later that day

the two of them arrived at the Leveson Inquiry whether Chen said

he thought politicians had demeaned themselves by getting too close to

newspaper proprietors. On Wednesday he said he had asked BBC management

for rethink on plans to cut local radio and on the regional TV

current affairs programme Inside Out. That would have gone down well

with members of the public like The problem is that the BBC Trust

now wants management to restore �10 million of the cuts it was going to

make to local TV and radio and find other ways of making me their

savings. But how? Viewers have their thoughts. One of them

prompted by this live appearance of the Local Government correspondent.

Good morning. Councils across England are setting their budgets

over the next few weeks. At the moment we are hearing about