07/02/2014 Newswatch

It is News watch with Samira Ahmed, and the art of the television news

obituary. Hello and welcome to News watch with

me, Samira Ahmed. An actor dies of a drugs overdose, how much news

coverage does that warrant and her respectful fit the tone of victories

the -- how respectful. Should the tone of obituaries. Viewers ask, do

BBC staff need to be in the eye of the storm? And fake or fortune, why

viewers of that BBC One programme knew the answer to the question

before they had even watched it. News of the death of the actor,

Philip Seymour Hoffman, broke early on Sunday evening. It led the BBC

bulletin with a report from Nick Bryant in New York. Celebrated in

Hollywood, the life of Philip Seymour Hoffman ended in the

seclusion of his New York apartment, where he died following an apparent

drug overdose. His body was reportedly discovered with a needle

in his arm. What is believed to be heroin was also found at the scene.

Not everyone approved of the coverage.

We asked BBC News for a response to those complaints and were told...

When reporting the death of public figures, we do take into account how

they will be received among our audience. On Sunday night we also

reported a number of other stories. This is not the first time the

reporting of a death has provoked controversy among viewers about the

amount of attention and the tone of obituaries. Two stories which

resulted in some of the biggest complaint of recent years were the

death of Michael Jackson in 2009 and of Amy Winehouse in 2011. Both

resulted in widespread outpouring of grief. The controversy surrounding

the death led to accusations of excessive focus on celebrities and

overly sympathetic reporting. Political depth, such as that of

Baroness Thatcher last year drew equally divided responses. Thousands

complained about the blanket coverage of Nelson Mandela. There

were complaints about the tone of the obituary of Ronnie Biggs and

that of Lord McAlpine in January. Should one speak ill of the dead or

should one always be respectful in obituaries? Joining me to discuss

all those issues is Nick Higham. He has looked back on the lives of many

figures in the news. Thank you for coming on the programme. Let's start

with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was interesting that the number of

viewers felt the coverage was too prominent and he did not warrant

that much attention. What did you make of that view? He led the

bulletin at 10pm on Sunday evening. That was largely because there were

other stories but they were not as strong. I think you need to

distinguish between conventional obituaries, when somebody dies at a

great age are to a long and valuable life, and we look back and celebrate

that life and those people who die in other circumstances. That makes

them news stories. The treatment of the Philip Seymour Hoffman story was

much more of a news story than an obituary. There were complaints

there was an outhouse bias. Many might not have seen his bills and he

was not a very famous actor. -- his films. They say that scientists do

not get proper obituaries but actors do. Actors, appearing on television,

screen and films, there is a lot of material about them. Scientists

often do not make television programmes. They work away from the

public eye so it is much more difficult to craft an obituary about

them. I did an obituary the other day of Christopher chat away. He was

a middle distance runner in the 1950s. He was a world record holder

who ran with Roger Bannister when he broke the four-minute mile. He was a

pioneering television reporter. He was a Conservative MP and the

minister who produced commercial television. Many came up to me who

had not heard of him and said, Goss, wasn't he interesting! There is a

sense there is an implicit danger of glorifying a celebrity drug abuse

death. I understand why people say that. To shy away from the cause of

death would be dishonest. You have to say he died in the prime of

life. Why? He was a drug user. Where someone has been controversial and

private lives have been difficult, where they have done things which

are perhaps reprehensible, it would be wrong of us to shy away from that

and not to talk about it. The BBC does prepare profiles in advance. As

someone who has done it a lot, how does it work? How tricky is it

preparing films about people who are still with us? There are many people

about whom we would want to run obituaries. You are looking for good

pictures and someone who has lived an interesting and significant

life. They have had a significant impact. It helps but is not

essential that people recognise them and know them. If there is some

element of controversy, you want to reflect that. You must not shy away

from bad news. My biggest failure many years ago in obituaries was

when Robert Maxwell died. We ran an obituary, because we were not

certain he was dead at the time. We were always afraid he might come

back and sue us for libel if he were not dead. I knew he was a crook but

I think we short-changed our viewers. Thank you so much. You can

let us know your thoughts on TV obituaries by phone, e-mail or

Twitter. Details coming up later. First, some of the topics which have

caught your attention this week, starting with the attention given to

the trip of Prince Charles to the flood hit Somerset Levels.

This week 's floods also prompted comments with or familiar ring.

There were concerns that BBC staff might be endangering themselves and

setting a bad example to others in the wet and windy locations from

where they were reporting. We were told that BBC staff or undergo

safety training. Now complaints have resurfaced, following reports this

week, such as these. People are offering each other places to stay.

Cattle are being taken to auction. You get the sense that the time is

up and the water is encroaching that bit further up all the time. It has

really taken a turn for the worse. Their ways are starting to come over

the wall. It is very damp and windy. -- be waves. It has been a ferocious

night. Have you done enough to protect communities like this? Very

much so. I think we will leave it there because it is starting to

become unsafe. We are going to move. There is one message from the

Environment Agency to be ballooning in these areas, do not come down and

take a look. Finally, the strange Case of the

businessman who paid ?100,000 for a work of art by the artist Marc

Chagall. The discovery was made on BBC One programme shown on Sunday

evening. Before that, BBC Television, radio and online news

had already carried the story that it was indeed a forgery, thus

upsetting 150 or so viewers who contacted us.

Thanks to those who got in touch this week. You can telephone us, or

e-mail. You may feature your message or even invite you to appear on the

programme. You can search the topics we have previously covered on the

website. That is all from us. We will back to hear your thoughts

about BBC News coverage again next week. Goodbye.

Hello. The coast will be a dangerous place to be again over the next

couple of days. More storms heading in from the Atlantic with the