21/03/2014 Newswatch

contribution. Time for a look at coverage by the

BBC of the budget. Hello and welcome to Newswatch. A welter of

statistics, claims and counterclaims over this year's budget. We look at

how impartial and comprehensible the BBC's economic coverages and... Not

a lot going on in that studio. Did no one from the News Channel notice

for nearly four minutes? The battered red box, the on the spot

analysis from economic and political editors, the reaction from so`called

ordinary families around the country. Wednesday's news was

dominated by all the traditional elements of the Budget. Have you any

rabbits in that box, Chancellor? The answer was yes and for once it had

not leagues. He knew the message she was taking to the house of, Ms

Russ`macro the House of Commons was falling unemployment and wages for

the first time in years set to rise faster than inflation. George

Osborne. How people responded to what followed may have depended

partly on how it would affect their pockets and on their political

allegiance but at `` but did the BBC maintain impartiality? No, said

Jacqueline. And although the opposite sentiment

was also expressed, that charge of being glass half empty on the

economy has been levelled by others, such as David Ross.

Another recurrent issue with the BBC's coverages whether there is

enough explanation of complex economic concepts and terms. One

anonymous viewer for not. To respond to all those points I'm

joined by the head of the BBC's business and economics unit. Thank

you for coming on Newswatch. It seems there is a politically lowly

strong political tone to every bit of economic news and we get more

complaints, saying they feel the BBC is too negative about how it reports

these items. What is your view? Our job is to give people the context,

to explain the background and provide them with the best analysis

we can and we do that through the facts and sourcing expert opinion

and providing them with as much detail as we can about how these

issues affect their lives. So on incomes for example, or job

security, and jobs growth, so it is not our job to talk about whether

the Budget is positive or negative, it is to make sense of it for people

so they can have answers to difficult questions as they judge

what decisions to make about their futures. Things like pension reform,

people think it is not as relevant to a lot of younger people, who

don't have the kind of pensions that people in their 40s and 50s do, that

every issue like employment has a negative side, which is thinking

about what will happen to interest rates of employment is going? Our

purpose is to provide us broader perspective as we can, to seek as

many different views as we cannot provide audiences with the answer is

that they think `` that we think they are asking. We also do it on

the website and if you look at the way the web coverage was consumed on

Wednesday in particular and again on Thursday, with some of the questions

and answers that were done, they were consumed in great numbers.

Equally, on phone`ins like five live, they did phone`ins with the

pensions minister to answer questions, Robert Peston was doing a

question and answer on Facebook. What difference do they make to the

range of information people get? How much do they really add? It is

trying to access audiences in different ways and ask questions in

different contexts. Those opportunities have been valuable. We

have done it on Twitter in the past. We are trying to allow me new ways

to allow audiences to contact us to get the benefit of our expertise,

secure in the knowledge it is hopefully impartial coverage. Our

research suggests audiences turned the BBC when they want impartial

coverage, in ever greater numbers as they did. Some of these new ways of

reaching them have been invaluable. Tell me more about competence

ability. We heard a complaint about people who feel there is a lot of

jargon and date and it is not always explained to them. We strive to make

it compensable. If you hear jargon term in a news bulletin. Such as

GDP? You should hear it explained, what it means, so you should never

hear the term GDP in isolation without instant explanation of

growth in the economy. That is something we have taken to heart,

particularly as interest in the economy has remained at high levels

since the crisis five or six years ago. We are trying to make sure we

explain terms. In the pension reform on Wednesday, we made sure to always

explain what an annuity was, a defined contribution scheme was, the

specific areas of interest that we knew they would be asking questions

about, we tried to give as much clarity in the answers as we could.

Thank you for coming on Newswatch. You had plenty of other things to

get off your chest is this week. Time to mention a few of them. The

saga of the missing Malaysian airliner has continued to make

headlines, notably this incident in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Distressed Chinese relatives, trying to complain about the lack of

information to journalists outside a news conference, were dragged away

by security guards. Afterwards correspond in Jonah Fisher tried to

find out why. Can you, excuse me sir, why are you not allowing the

relatives to speak to us? Why are you not allowing the relatives to

speak to us? Excuse me, why are you not allowing the relatives to speak

to us, sir? OK, no comment? It is a bit strange, isn't it? They wanted

to speak to us. Ansa came their norm. A fall number of viewers felt

uncomfortable at the way the situation was handled. Gareth

Crosthwaite disgusted. Earlier in the week Rupert

Wingfield`Hayes pursued a different angle on the missing plane, finding

out how to change a flight path in a cockpit stimulator. In a simulated

today, it took me just a few minutes to learn how to navigate and to

change course. O M M L I N. These are waypoints, and insert? And now

the plane is heading, it is turning towards the new wage point. It is as

simple as that. Or is it? Tom, an Airbus captain, writing to us said

it is not. Chris Lawrence made a different

point. The BBC's coverage of the debate

over Scottish independence will come under increasing scrutiny as

September's referendum approaches and last Sunday some hackles north

of the border were raised by Andrew Marr's interview with the first

Minister, Alex Salmond. After some discussion about European

president's Jose Manuel Barroso's view that it would be difficult for

an independent Scotland to join the EU, the presenter asked this. You

are but then I think it would be hard to get back in, I have to say,

but let's move on to Theresa May. Sorry, can I just examine that for a

second, Andrew? This is what the Andrew Marr analysis, as opposed

to... Having talked to the Secretary`General. Is that ended the

big `` is that an individual expression? I have no views on this,

nor does the BBC. I was reflecting what Mr Barroso said. You gave your

opinion. Not everyone accepted Andrew Marr's explanation, with one

viewer leaving us this phone message. I think Andrew Marr was out

of order and on Sunday in his programme. He doesn't have the right

to comment on whether Scotland would be accepted into the EU or not. I

think the way he handled Alex Salmond was an absolute disgrace and

I think it is high time the BBC took a look at itself and thought to

itself, whose side am I on here? In a statement BBC News defended the

interview, reiterating that... Finally, if you were watching the

news channel at about 9:55pm on Monday evening, you would have seen

the weather bulletin interrupted. Weather fronts are mainly active

off. For almost four minutes nothing else was seen. All that could be

heard was the clicking noise of a computer keyboard and a few

off`camera words from Huw Edwards, preparing for the News at Ten. Paul

Thorpe was unimpressed. We asked what went wrong that night

and were told. Thanks for all your comments this

week. You can share your opinions on BBC News and current affairs.

Have a look at our website for previous discussions. We will be

back to hear your thoughts about BBC News coverage again next week.

Goodbye. Good evening. It was a cool,

blustery and showery end to the week and that's how we will get on into

the weekend as well. Last weekend it was quite warm. This weekend we will

be on the cool side. It was cool and breezy,