23/11/2012 Newswatch

in the opened after Thanksgiving. Welcome to Newswatch the BBC has

itself made at the news this week but not everyone is happy about the

way its new leader was appointed or the terms of departure of its pages

-- his predecessor. And in Gaza are, one of the BBC

reporters has re-tweeted a wrongly The BBC has its fourth director

general in a year, if you count the current acting director general,

Tim Davie. Their new boss, Tony Hall, was previously in charge of

BBC News, setting up Radio 5 Live. We will have to see what impact

people have on news output, but Newswatch view was where concerned

about the way he was appointed. -- Another view was used the same

Meanwhile, the reverberations around the departure of Lord Hall's

predecessor, George Entwistle, continued this week, with the

obedience -- appearance of two BBC executives in front of the Public

Accounts Committee. It emerged the concerns were not just a pay-off of

four rather than �50,000 - twice what he was legally entitled to -

but also PR expenses and a year's private medical insurance.

The serious point underlying this is that it demonstrates a complete

lack of understanding of how this is viewed in the public domain,

given that cities licence-fee p a - - licence fee payer's money.

And so, the BBC gravy train There were also concerns this week

over the appointments process of another August institution, the

trick of England. The Prime Minister and both outgoing and

incoming Archbishops of Canterbury seemed to reflect boat wide

disappointment at the General Synod's failure to allow women's

bishops. Did the BBC coverage break impartiality? Yes, one viewer

On Monday morning, breakfast reported on a fungus which has been

attacking one of the most popular species of Christmas tree.

It is not the same as the deadly ash dieback disease, but courts are

worried that this fungal disease could spread, which means perhaps

they could be fewer Christmas trees, and those that are available may be

more expensive. Reporter Charlotte cleaning was in

a forest to find out more. Her asthma Charlotte Leeming.

If there is a shortage, will the price go up?

Because it has been such a wet summer, the trees have responded by

growing marvellously, so there are loads of trees about. I don't think

anyone will have a problem finding an ice tree and the prices will not

go up because there are lots on the market.

Two viewers rang in with their observations.

He pointed out there was no shortage and plenty of trees this

year because of the wet summer. Basically, there Jubilee

everything's said prior to the actual article turned out not to be

true. -- basically, everything said. We what are you doing, BBC Two

might stop scaremongering where scaremongering is not needed.

Much of this week's news was dominated by violence and a

ceasefire in Gaza. As with all conflict in the Middle East,

providing coverage but all sides find balanced is elusive. Hundreds

of viewers contacted the BBC alleging bias towards Israel and

hundreds of others cited what they saw as a bias against Israel. Many

felt there was an example of the BBC's sympathy to the cause on the

Twitter account of a BBC reporter. He re-tweeted the picture from a

Palestinian journalist, a photograph tagged as being from

Gaza. It turned out of the child was from Syria and the BBC reporter

apologised. That was not good It is not the first time Twitter

has got someone in trouble. One tweed from a producer was at the

heart of the row over Newsnight's investigation into abuse at a

children's home, and Lord McAlpine's lawyers are now

threatening legal action against all those who tweeted his name in

connection with that the report. One viewer got in touch recently to

Are there more problems than advantages to BBC journalists are

using Twitter? We need to discuss that is the social media editor for

BBC News, Chris Hamilton. Thank you for coming in. You are encouraging

correspondents took Whitmore, but in this case, although there was an

apology it did to damage and it seemed as though there was an

accident waiting to happen. Yes, I think we are aware of the risks and

disadvantages, potential disadvantages, of a platform like

Twitter. By its very nature it is about instant communication, about

concise communication, and there are pitfalls. We are clear with our

journalists, we have training and guidance that is very clear on how

to use it. Can you summarise some of the key aspects of guidance on

Twitter? We emphasise there are positives

and we truly believe there are many Brotherton's. There is a good

reason we used Twitter and other social media for news gathering and

getting content out there, but we are also clear that people need to

remember they are representing the BBC, they must retain their

impartiality and be careful sounding off about things. We are

very open about that, be published our guidance and a very clear on

what we stand on it. We had 200 e-mails about a bad one

to read from John Donaldson. That undermines a lot of reporting,

potentially. Robert Peston, there are examples about his tweets,

football teams he supports or does not support, he got into trouble of

reading about the royal couple and sex. If big correspondents are

doing this it suggests that training is not as good as it

should be and there is damage being done. I think if you look again at

the overall volume of tweets from any of those individuals, let alone

across all of our journalists, I think there are few examples about

that. One bad tweet, as you know, is all it takes to cause a lot of

damage, and the BBC knows that all too well in the last week.

course, that is true, but considering the volume, considering

the speed, it is a new medium where all of us are working through this,

we are in a very good place, and it is inevitable there will be

problems, but I think the most important thing is the way you

react to those as they happen. That means acknowledging, apologising

and learning the lesson. In the case of the John Donaldson treat -

backed week, should he even have been tweeting that picture?

That is an example of someone on the ground, he re-tweeted it on

good faith and he reacted in exactly the right way - as soon as

he understood it was not what it was reported to be, he issued a

correction. I understand he has deleted it and he will learn

lessons. There has been for this quite rightly on that mistake, but

it is also important to recognise that was one part of some

incredible journals and John was doing on Twitter and on the rest of

our output based in Gaza at at a lot of personal risk telling a

story alongside his colleagues in Israel and elsewhere in Gaza.

clearly heightened editorial sensitivity at the BBC at the

moment, but in the end is Twitter not just still as dangerous? Cup I

do not agree with the notion -- I do not agree with the notion that

Twitter is dangerous. It is just a communications medium, and everyone

has to remember that. There are particular characteristics that

mean care is needed, the speed, the precise, concise nature...

Audience is encourage you to come back to it. But that is part of the

reason we want to be there, because it is an excellent way for us to

directly talk to audiences and licence-fee payers to get their

feedback, to have conversations and find out what they're thinking and

make sure their views are being represented or taking on board when

it comes to editorial discussion. There are risks and downside, but

as long that we have the right checks, excellent training courses

that have been running for some time now, by and large you can stay

at a trouble, and I think we have. Thank you so much. Thank you for

all your comments this week, and if you want to share your opinion is

one BBC News and current affairs, You can also find us on Twitter and