:00:00. > :00:00.in the studio. Now it's time for Newswatch, with Samira Ahmed. This
:00:00. > :00:00.week, have BBC staff in the Philippines been diverting valuable
:00:00. > :00:18.resources away from survivors of the typhoon?
:00:19. > :00:21.Welcome to Newswatch with me. An influx of BBC presenters and
:00:22. > :00:24.reporters in the Philippines and an uncomfortable watch for some viewers
:00:25. > :00:32.concerned about survivors of the typhoon.
:00:33. > :00:39.The two`minute silence which was not actually silent. And a 75`year`old
:00:40. > :00:50.broadcaster gets a tattooed, but is it news? More than a week after the
:00:51. > :00:54.typhoon`hit the Philippines the death toll is rising and there are
:00:55. > :00:59.difficulties in getting food and supplies out to the survivors. It is
:01:00. > :01:03.a huge challenge to broadcasters to cover the story and in a moment we
:01:04. > :01:06.will explore some of the issues for journalists with the BBC's foreign
:01:07. > :01:16.editor. First some of your reactions to the coverage. I would really like
:01:17. > :01:24.to know why George Allah gaer is fronting the news from Manila. We
:01:25. > :01:30.have had perfectly good reporters in the last 48 hours and it is a
:01:31. > :01:34.complete and utter waste of money to complete `` to persist in doing it.
:01:35. > :01:45.There is no reason. He is doing nothing that he could not do from
:01:46. > :01:54.the studio in Britain. There that he is wasting. It is ridiculous. That
:01:55. > :02:12.concern was picked up by Phil who messaged us on Thursday.
:02:13. > :02:39.Well, with me now to respond to those points is the foreign editor
:02:40. > :02:47.for BBC News. Can you start with the issue of sending in the big news
:02:48. > :02:51.anchors. Viewers do not see why people are standing in Manila and
:02:52. > :02:56.just reading introduction is. The main anchors that we sent out there
:02:57. > :03:01.do not just read introductions. They are presenting some of the BBC One
:03:02. > :03:08.programmes but they are also on our continuous networks and our radio
:03:09. > :03:12.networks. They go out as reporters. We had some very experienced
:03:13. > :03:16.presenters in these locations and we do not have a bureau in the
:03:17. > :03:20.Philippines and it happened that George Alec I was one of the closest
:03:21. > :03:43.people we could send this disaster he was in shrill anchor. `` Shri
:03:44. > :03:46.Lancaster. Srii Lanka. The people we send their carried everything they
:03:47. > :03:50.could on their backs. They take a tent and they operate out of the
:03:51. > :03:53.tent and they take their own food and water and power. The conditions
:03:54. > :03:57.are very difficult for them but we are not there to be any burden on
:03:58. > :04:05.the aid agencies all the people who are trying to survive after the
:04:06. > :04:10.disaster. What about the dilemma when the BBC crews have got through
:04:11. > :04:12.and no aid has got through. What about the thought that they should
:04:13. > :04:16.have taken food supplies with them if they could get through and it was
:04:17. > :04:22.awful for people to see them arrive and just report on their misery.
:04:23. > :04:27.There were no situations where we were the only ones to arrive there.
:04:28. > :04:32.The reality is that we are going in as very small teams. The first team
:04:33. > :04:35.that got that had backpacks. Everything they had to support
:04:36. > :04:41.themselves were in their backpacks. We were not coming in in big convoy
:04:42. > :04:45.is full of vehicles loaded with food just for ourselves. That is not the
:04:46. > :04:54.reality on the ground. You would have seen from the pictures that
:04:55. > :05:01.there was nothing in the locations that we we are sending in very small
:05:02. > :05:09.teams and we so how have events like this tsunami affected how we cover
:05:10. > :05:12.situations like this? We try and limit the number of people going
:05:13. > :05:16.in. We cannot have large crews travelling around everywhere because
:05:17. > :05:21.the crews on that side of the world are having to gather news all day
:05:22. > :05:26.and file it all night. People can only operate like that for a 24 or
:05:27. > :05:31.48 hours at the most before you have to get them out of the region or
:05:32. > :05:34.give them some sort of break so we have very small crews in a lot of
:05:35. > :05:46.different locations and we are accessing them in rotation. I know
:05:47. > :05:49.some people have asked why we had George Alagiah and also Tim Wilcox
:05:50. > :05:50.but they did not see that one was broadcasting throughout the day and
:05:51. > :05:53.the other was broadcasting throughout the night. This was the
:05:54. > :05:57.situation in the early days when no one understood the scale of it but
:05:58. > :06:01.now having had criticism put to you is there something you would say
:06:02. > :06:05.about the BBC's responsibility on getting word out on what was going
:06:06. > :06:10.on and have you had any feedback about whether it affected aid
:06:11. > :06:13.donations? Aid agencies want us to be there and telling the story.
:06:14. > :06:17.Governments want the wider world to know about what has happened,
:06:18. > :06:22.especially as was acknowledged by the Filipino government, they are
:06:23. > :06:27.not coping. If you look at things like the DEC appeal which raised in
:06:28. > :06:31.a short period of time ?30 million. This is clearly a story of
:06:32. > :06:35.international interest and huge interest to people in the UK and it
:06:36. > :06:44.was the sort of story that we had to be there and we had to tell the
:06:45. > :06:47.world about it. Thank you very much. Monday was Armistice Day,
:06:48. > :06:53.traditionally marks by a two`minute silence. At the 11th hour of the
:06:54. > :07:07.11th day and the 11th month BBC One and BBC Two joined with the news
:07:08. > :07:31.channel to broadcast this. `` BIG BEN CHIMES.
:07:32. > :07:38.Silence, not really, and there were locations. The locations were great
:07:39. > :07:49.but two minutes silence not exactly that.
:07:50. > :07:55.Another caller agreed. This is BBC News ` coming up in the
:07:56. > :08:09.next few minutes: to answer that question I am joined
:08:10. > :08:15.by the man in charge. What did happen? Well, you saw and heard what
:08:16. > :08:20.happened. The intention was to go to a number of places around the
:08:21. > :08:28.country to see how people were commemorating Armistice Day and in
:08:29. > :08:34.one respect we did that. You saw, but you also heard and clearly what
:08:35. > :08:38.you did not get was silence. That disappointed a significant number of
:08:39. > :08:44.viewers and it did upset viewers and I would apologise to them because I
:08:45. > :08:50.know how important the anniversary is to millions of people. I am very
:08:51. > :08:54.sorry that it did not go as we would wish. The BBC covers Armistice Day
:08:55. > :08:58.every year with this two`minute silence so what happened this year,
:08:59. > :09:03.did you try to do some indifferent that went wrong? Not particularly.
:09:04. > :09:07.The main commemoration on Remembrance Sunday is on the
:09:08. > :09:12.cenotaph. On Armistice Day itself we try to reflect the whole of the UK
:09:13. > :09:17.and get to as many places as possible. What that means is that
:09:18. > :09:35.the BBC is an observer at a number of locally organised and vents. ``
:09:36. > :09:37.events. Our teams did what they could to ensure that all of our
:09:38. > :09:39.watches were synchronised and 11am he was 11am there and we checked
:09:40. > :09:41.with the organisers that the two`minute silence was going to be
:09:42. > :09:44.observed and what actually happens in three of our locations was that
:09:45. > :09:48.the timing of the events slipped so that at the National Arboretum where
:09:49. > :09:52.you heard the singing, very shortly afterwards they went quiet for two
:09:53. > :09:57.minutes. With hindsight is there anything you can do differently
:09:58. > :10:01.about how to treat the occasion? I think we will emphasise even more
:10:02. > :10:05.strongly to the local organisers that they have two, in order for us
:10:06. > :10:10.to be able to fill the silence successfully, we have to make sure
:10:11. > :10:14.that the two minutes starts at 11 and finishes two minutes afterwards,
:10:15. > :10:19.with a bit of a buff # with a bit of a buffer either side. Should we just
:10:20. > :10:22.stick to one location? No, because we are the national broadcaster and
:10:23. > :10:27.the whole point of Armistice Day is to see how all of the nations of the
:10:28. > :10:34.big `` one of the nations of the united kingdom come together and how
:10:35. > :10:38.we do it all over. Thank you. Finally the news at six on Tuesday
:10:39. > :10:42.featured this. David Dimbleby says he has fulfilled
:10:43. > :10:47.a lifetimes ambition by getting a tad too at the age of 75. He has had
:10:48. > :10:52.it done as part of a BBC series he has made and he chose the design
:10:53. > :11:05.because it features his star sign. He said it did not hurt, but it just
:11:06. > :11:18.zinged a bit. Thank you for all of your comments
:11:19. > :11:29.this week. Do share all of your opinions by calling us. Or you can
:11:30. > :11:34.send us an e`mail. You can also contact us on Twitter or through the
:11:35. > :11:46.website. That is all from us and we will hear your thoughts about BBC
:11:47. > :11:50.News coverage next week. Good evening. Temperatures are
:11:51. > :11:55.already close to freezing across southern England. We have clearer
:11:56. > :12:01.skies and there will be missed and folk forming later. Further north we
:12:02. > :12:04.have more clout. Underneath the cloud it will be mild but you can
:12:05. > :12:10.see in the frosty weather that we have across rural areas of southern
:12:11. > :12:14.England tonight. The mist and fog could be dense in places and will
:12:15. > :12:19.linger well into the morning in some places. It will only lift as the
:12:20. > :12:20.cloud moves to the south. Some