10/01/2014 Newswatch

the United States. Now it is time for News watch. This

week, reporting on the recent floods and storms. Hello and welcome to

Newswatch. Storms and flood battered Britain and BBC correspondence also.

That weather report provided a public service but puts journalists

and others in danger. The verdict Mark Duggan had not been

unlawfully killed by police, arouses anger including some of the BBC's

reporting of the case. Happy New Year... A freshly shaven

Jeremy Paxman returns to our screens.

It was a wild, wet and windy Christmas and New Year for many and

the floods continue in many parts of the country. Over the past three

weeks, BBC correspondence have been out in the worst of the weather. The

majority of the houses on this stretch of the Thames are adapted to

cope with something like these conditions.

For those that are not, there has been a disaster. But the rest of the

community, they said it is as bad as anything they can remember since

2003 and they are finding improvised ways of getting in and out. The

water is coming over again today because the flood defences cannot

cope with such ferocious weather. It is quite serious in terms of the

storm surge coming ashore. It is hitting any minute now. You can see

the force of the water as it is coming over. Breaking against the

shore front and it is causing flooding to the roads. Some viewers

felt showing reporters in such apparently dangerous locations was

irresponsible and one viewer object specifically to the last of those

clips we showed. He went into our Falkirk studio to describe his

reaction. I was so surprised and appalled by the pictures, that I

shouted to my wife, " come and look at this". Because it looked such a

stupid thing to do. A reporter was on the seafront in what was clearly

a gale and torrential rain with water breaking over a wall very

close to him. This seemed to be irresponsible, particularly when the

channel had been all day, emphasising the emergency services

saying, is your journey really necessary? It has got to be

essential if you have got to go out in this water. Keep away from the

sea fronts. The advice is to keep away from the coastline. You cannot

send out a message one minute and then ignore it the next. That is

what it seemed to me. And perhaps that was proved right at Aberystwyth

later when students were crowding onto the front. And it is not a good

idea to encourage people sending in their pig Jews when they may go to

extreme lengths to get good pictures. I am not saying it should

never happen, but there are certain circumstances where things are

clearly more dangerous than others. This was a dangerous situation it

seemed to me. Gary Smith, the BBC's UK news editor

joins me now. You are responsible for deploying many of the reporters.

That particular scene in Scotland, it just looked really reckless,

reporting from the seafront and it looks dangerous? I am glad you have

given me the chance to explain that we take safety incredibly seriously

when we are deploying any reporters and news teams around the country.

That particular clip in Scotland, when the team arrived they assessed

the depth of the water and found a location with slightly higher

ground, protect it by a hedge, that you could not see in front of the

shot. It is not just the producer, there is a cameraman watching the

weather as it changes and develops. On that occasion they had to

policeman as well who they consulted with beforehand who said they could

go there. I kept watching throughout the whole broadcast. It is partly a

matter of instinct. You look at that and it does look like you cannot

predict what will crash over the sea wall. As the viewer was saying, at a

time when the public were told to stay away from the sea fronts, this

seemed to be contradict hurry? They chose their location very carefully.

It can look dramatic, the scene behind the reporter. But they always

choose a position where they are out of danger's way. Even before they

get there they have taken advice from the Environment Agency, from

local authorities, the police about the scene they will encounter and

what the weather is like. Everybody has safety training on the BBC

before they go out to report. The cameraman, producers and the

reporters undergo a course of training before they go out of the

building. Every journalist gets issued with the journalism safety

guide which details all sorts of situations they might come across

and it includes a whole page on the dangers of flooding. You are happy

everybody behaved responsibly, nobody took any unnecessary risks

from what you saw and what viewers have complained about? All my

reporters are careful that when they go out they don't take unnecessary

risks. They assessed the situation on the ground and take advice from

professionals. It is important for them to do the job they are doing to

tell the viewers what is happening. Can you tell the challenges in

deploying on a story like this because events were changing very

quickly, it was a very large geographical spread. How did you

deploy on this? You will have seen in the extent of our coverage, there

is a use of the BBC helicopter. There are certain parts of the

country we cannot get to or are too dangerous to get to on the ground.

The best way of telling the story is from above. The places we do go to,

we talk to the weather team about where the weather will be

particularly bad and choose appropriate locations. Where is the

balance for news coverage in reporting what has happening, here

is flooding and you see reporters awaiting around, and giving more

predict of information about rising tides and weather information and

information people would use to plan? It is a bit of both. Our job

is to report the news as it happens. But with weather stories, people are

interested if the flooding is getting worse in their area. We put

a bit of that in as well. We try to leave the forecasting to weather

experts so we're not giving contradictory information. How much

emphasis should be given to the issue of climate change and its role

in extreme weather conditions? It was mentioned after a few days, but

there was some disagreement about whether the BBC was giving it the

prominence it should have? What are experts in the science team always

say is these climate change things are different. It is something that

happens over many years, so you cannot read too much into climate

change. Thank you so much. We welcome your thoughts on what you

heard and on any aspect on BBC News. Details on how to contact us at the

end of the programme. Starting now with reaction to the

coverage of the Mark Duggan inquest. The verdict that the 29-year-old,

whose shooting by police sparked riots in London in 2011 had not been

unlawfully killed came as a surprise and the disappointment and anger

felt by his friends and family, was fully reflect it on BBC News. Too

much for hundreds of viewers who did complain.

Following the Prime Minister's announcement at the weekend that the

state pension will rise by 2.5% a year, if the Conservatives win the

next election, the subject has remained in the news all week.

Increasing the state pension will benefit all pensioners, including

some who are already enjoying comfortable lifestyles. And it will

have to be paid for by those who are working.

But the image and language used elsewhere and on BBC News annoyed

viewers such as this who wrote: Finally, beards are rarely seen on

television, particularly on the face of news and current affairs

presenters. But that changed, Newsnight gets on a lot these days,

usually it's presenters dressing up or dancing. This is about Jeremy

Paxman growing a beard. Everyone got used to it and the fuss died down.

This week, he appeared to present clean-shaven and the media were

alerted by in an interview in the Radio Times. The presenter told the

magazine beards are 2013. Debates raged cross media outlets and made a

feature on the BBC News website. There were 11 stories about his

beard on the website on Friday. 20 of viewers tweeted about that. --

plenty of viewers. Why don't you tell us what you think

is so 2014 about BBC News in a good or a bad way. You can contact us on:

That is all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about ABC news

coverage again next week. Goodbye. Rain is making its way across

England and Wales at the moment. Showers across Scotland and Northern

Ireland and then as we move into the night, temperatures will come down.

Ice will be our next talking point as we look at the weather moving

into Saturday morning. Most of the ice