:00:19. > :00:23.in the opened after Thanksgiving. Welcome to Newswatch the BBC has
:00:23. > :00:27.itself made at the news this week but not everyone is happy about the
:00:27. > :00:31.way its new leader was appointed or the terms of departure of its pages
:00:31. > :00:41.-- his predecessor. And in Gaza are, one of the BBC
:00:41. > :00:43.
:00:43. > :00:47.reporters has re-tweeted a wrongly The BBC has its fourth director
:00:47. > :00:53.general in a year, if you count the current acting director general,
:00:53. > :00:58.Tim Davie. Their new boss, Tony Hall, was previously in charge of
:00:58. > :01:03.BBC News, setting up Radio 5 Live. We will have to see what impact
:01:03. > :01:13.people have on news output, but Newswatch view was where concerned
:01:13. > :01:20.
:01:21. > :01:30.about the way he was appointed. -- Another view was used the same
:01:31. > :01:35.
:01:35. > :01:40.Meanwhile, the reverberations around the departure of Lord Hall's
:01:41. > :01:45.predecessor, George Entwistle, continued this week, with the
:01:45. > :01:51.obedience -- appearance of two BBC executives in front of the Public
:01:51. > :01:55.Accounts Committee. It emerged the concerns were not just a pay-off of
:01:55. > :02:02.four rather than �50,000 - twice what he was legally entitled to -
:02:02. > :02:07.but also PR expenses and a year's private medical insurance.
:02:07. > :02:13.The serious point underlying this is that it demonstrates a complete
:02:13. > :02:21.lack of understanding of how this is viewed in the public domain,
:02:21. > :02:31.given that cities licence-fee p a - - licence fee payer's money.
:02:31. > :02:39.
:02:39. > :02:43.And so, the BBC gravy train There were also concerns this week
:02:43. > :02:48.over the appointments process of another August institution, the
:02:48. > :02:52.trick of England. The Prime Minister and both outgoing and
:02:52. > :02:57.incoming Archbishops of Canterbury seemed to reflect boat wide
:02:57. > :03:03.disappointment at the General Synod's failure to allow women's
:03:03. > :03:13.bishops. Did the BBC coverage break impartiality? Yes, one viewer
:03:13. > :03:32.
:03:32. > :03:36.On Monday morning, breakfast reported on a fungus which has been
:03:36. > :03:41.attacking one of the most popular species of Christmas tree.
:03:41. > :03:45.It is not the same as the deadly ash dieback disease, but courts are
:03:45. > :03:48.worried that this fungal disease could spread, which means perhaps
:03:48. > :03:53.they could be fewer Christmas trees, and those that are available may be
:03:53. > :03:57.more expensive. Reporter Charlotte cleaning was in
:03:57. > :04:00.a forest to find out more. Her asthma Charlotte Leeming.
:04:00. > :04:04.If there is a shortage, will the price go up?
:04:04. > :04:08.Because it has been such a wet summer, the trees have responded by
:04:08. > :04:12.growing marvellously, so there are loads of trees about. I don't think
:04:12. > :04:15.anyone will have a problem finding an ice tree and the prices will not
:04:15. > :04:18.go up because there are lots on the market.
:04:18. > :04:22.Two viewers rang in with their observations.
:04:22. > :04:27.He pointed out there was no shortage and plenty of trees this
:04:27. > :04:30.year because of the wet summer. Basically, there Jubilee
:04:31. > :04:37.everything's said prior to the actual article turned out not to be
:04:37. > :04:43.true. -- basically, everything said. We what are you doing, BBC Two
:04:43. > :04:48.might stop scaremongering where scaremongering is not needed.
:04:48. > :04:52.Much of this week's news was dominated by violence and a
:04:52. > :04:56.ceasefire in Gaza. As with all conflict in the Middle East,
:04:56. > :05:02.providing coverage but all sides find balanced is elusive. Hundreds
:05:02. > :05:10.of viewers contacted the BBC alleging bias towards Israel and
:05:10. > :05:14.hundreds of others cited what they saw as a bias against Israel. Many
:05:14. > :05:21.felt there was an example of the BBC's sympathy to the cause on the
:05:21. > :05:28.Twitter account of a BBC reporter. He re-tweeted the picture from a
:05:28. > :05:33.Palestinian journalist, a photograph tagged as being from
:05:33. > :05:43.Gaza. It turned out of the child was from Syria and the BBC reporter
:05:43. > :06:01.
:06:01. > :06:05.apologised. That was not good It is not the first time Twitter
:06:05. > :06:08.has got someone in trouble. One tweed from a producer was at the
:06:08. > :06:13.heart of the row over Newsnight's investigation into abuse at a
:06:13. > :06:16.children's home, and Lord McAlpine's lawyers are now
:06:16. > :06:20.threatening legal action against all those who tweeted his name in
:06:20. > :06:30.connection with that the report. One viewer got in touch recently to
:06:30. > :06:39.
:06:39. > :06:45.Are there more problems than advantages to BBC journalists are
:06:45. > :06:52.using Twitter? We need to discuss that is the social media editor for
:06:52. > :06:56.BBC News, Chris Hamilton. Thank you for coming in. You are encouraging
:06:56. > :06:58.correspondents took Whitmore, but in this case, although there was an
:06:58. > :07:04.apology it did to damage and it seemed as though there was an
:07:04. > :07:07.accident waiting to happen. Yes, I think we are aware of the risks and
:07:07. > :07:14.disadvantages, potential disadvantages, of a platform like
:07:14. > :07:20.Twitter. By its very nature it is about instant communication, about
:07:20. > :07:23.concise communication, and there are pitfalls. We are clear with our
:07:23. > :07:27.journalists, we have training and guidance that is very clear on how
:07:27. > :07:32.to use it. Can you summarise some of the key aspects of guidance on
:07:32. > :07:35.Twitter? We emphasise there are positives
:07:36. > :07:39.and we truly believe there are many Brotherton's. There is a good
:07:39. > :07:43.reason we used Twitter and other social media for news gathering and
:07:43. > :07:47.getting content out there, but we are also clear that people need to
:07:47. > :07:51.remember they are representing the BBC, they must retain their
:07:51. > :07:56.impartiality and be careful sounding off about things. We are
:07:56. > :08:01.very open about that, be published our guidance and a very clear on
:08:01. > :08:06.what we stand on it. We had 200 e-mails about a bad one
:08:06. > :08:10.to read from John Donaldson. That undermines a lot of reporting,
:08:10. > :08:15.potentially. Robert Peston, there are examples about his tweets,
:08:15. > :08:18.football teams he supports or does not support, he got into trouble of
:08:19. > :08:21.reading about the royal couple and sex. If big correspondents are
:08:21. > :08:25.doing this it suggests that training is not as good as it
:08:25. > :08:31.should be and there is damage being done. I think if you look again at
:08:32. > :08:34.the overall volume of tweets from any of those individuals, let alone
:08:34. > :08:39.across all of our journalists, I think there are few examples about
:08:39. > :08:43.that. One bad tweet, as you know, is all it takes to cause a lot of
:08:43. > :08:47.damage, and the BBC knows that all too well in the last week.
:08:47. > :08:51.course, that is true, but considering the volume, considering
:08:51. > :08:56.the speed, it is a new medium where all of us are working through this,
:08:56. > :09:00.we are in a very good place, and it is inevitable there will be
:09:00. > :09:05.problems, but I think the most important thing is the way you
:09:05. > :09:09.react to those as they happen. That means acknowledging, apologising
:09:09. > :09:15.and learning the lesson. In the case of the John Donaldson treat -
:09:15. > :09:20.backed week, should he even have been tweeting that picture?
:09:20. > :09:23.That is an example of someone on the ground, he re-tweeted it on
:09:23. > :09:27.good faith and he reacted in exactly the right way - as soon as
:09:28. > :09:31.he understood it was not what it was reported to be, he issued a
:09:31. > :09:36.correction. I understand he has deleted it and he will learn
:09:36. > :09:40.lessons. There has been for this quite rightly on that mistake, but
:09:40. > :09:45.it is also important to recognise that was one part of some
:09:45. > :09:49.incredible journals and John was doing on Twitter and on the rest of
:09:49. > :09:53.our output based in Gaza at at a lot of personal risk telling a
:09:53. > :09:57.story alongside his colleagues in Israel and elsewhere in Gaza.
:09:57. > :10:04.clearly heightened editorial sensitivity at the BBC at the
:10:04. > :10:09.moment, but in the end is Twitter not just still as dangerous? Cup I
:10:09. > :10:12.do not agree with the notion -- I do not agree with the notion that
:10:12. > :10:16.Twitter is dangerous. It is just a communications medium, and everyone
:10:16. > :10:24.has to remember that. There are particular characteristics that
:10:24. > :10:27.mean care is needed, the speed, the precise, concise nature...
:10:27. > :10:31.Audience is encourage you to come back to it. But that is part of the
:10:31. > :10:34.reason we want to be there, because it is an excellent way for us to
:10:34. > :10:38.directly talk to audiences and licence-fee payers to get their
:10:38. > :10:41.feedback, to have conversations and find out what they're thinking and
:10:41. > :10:46.make sure their views are being represented or taking on board when
:10:46. > :10:50.it comes to editorial discussion. There are risks and downside, but
:10:50. > :10:54.as long that we have the right checks, excellent training courses
:10:54. > :10:58.that have been running for some time now, by and large you can stay
:10:58. > :11:03.at a trouble, and I think we have. Thank you so much. Thank you for
:11:03. > :11:13.all your comments this week, and if you want to share your opinion is
:11:13. > :11:14.
:11:14. > :11:19.one BBC News and current affairs, You can also find us on Twitter and