19/02/2016 Newswatch

been violent clashes in parts of the capital, Kampala. At 10pm, Sophie

Ray Werth will be here with a full round-up of the day's news. First,

it is time for Newswatch. Hello, welcome to Newswatch,

with me, Samira Ahmed. On this week's programme:

Allegations of bias and a lack of balance in the BBC's coverage

of the EU are likely to increase How can the corporation ensure

it treats both sides And, do reports of a former Pope's

friendship with a married woman try It is certain to be one of the most

contentious subjects the BBC will be Many people have fixed

and passionately held views on whether the UK should leave

or remain in the EU. And how BBC News presents

the argument on both sides is sure to be scrutinised very

carefully indeed. David Cameron's negotiations

with his fellow EU leaders have been a lengthy and tricky process,

but the arguments over in-work benefits for migrants,

the emergency brake, ever closer union and the rest of it

will be just as fiercely fought And they will be fought

largely on the airwaves. The BBC have a commitment to due

impartiality and independence from political influence,

particularly during election But how to enforce such a commitment

when much about membership of the EU Already, the complaints have been

coming into Newswatch, with Bob writing on Thursday

and representing the majority point By contrast, Victoria had this

to say about a recent news report: It is clear that not everybody

is likely to be satisfied by the campaign coverage,

but how will the BBC be at least be News programmes and bulletins

try to allocate equal That could prove difficult when most

of the leading figures in mainstream political parties

are in the stay camp. And there is a worrying

precedent for the BBC - coverage of the Scottish referendum

campaign 17 months ago was heavily criticised by those favouring

independence, who thought the corporation displayed

pro-Westminster bias. Will it again be charged

with showing too much sympathy To try and answer some of those

questions I'm joined now by Ric Bailey, the BBC's

Chief Political Adviser. It feels like there is already a lot

of tension out there about alleged I think it's true of referendums

that the passions are very hard People feel very strongly

about referendums, because, by their nature, they are polarised

and they are binary. It is a choice

between that and that. And so any referendum is a real

challenge for impartiality. And of course when you are talking

about the European Union, something which is so important

to the UK's future, of course What we have to do is

balance the arguments. So we're not necessarily

balancing the two campaigns, although of course we will hear

from both of them, but the most important thing for the electorate

and for the audience is that we are balancing

the arguments on the Remain side Is that then really boiling down

to a matter of equal airtime I mean, there will be people

watching with stopwatches, won't there, and

counting the minutes? We are very clear that

you don't judge impartiality Of course it's important,

it would be wrong to have twice as much air time for one side

as the other, but that is not the be Actually, impartiality is a much

more subtle judgment on that. You have got to think about the two

arguments, you have got to think about fairness,

about tone, about There many different aspects

to impartiality that go way As we heard, the BBC was very

strongly attacked by the SNP during the Scottish referendum

campaign for allegedly being pro-Westminster,

which meant pro keeping the union. Most Westminster parties officially

back remaining in the EU. So where does that leave

the BBC, on balance? We have to be very clear

in the debate on the referendum that this is not between parties,

this is about an argument And we will have to represent

the wider range of views on both sides, it is not just a single view

on each side. Many political parties,

quite a wide range of parties, will be on one side,

there will be many voices on the other side, and we have

to balance those. We absolutely, I think if you look

at the BBC's reputation globally, I don't think it is for necessarily

always going with the Establishment, of course part of our job

is to scrutinise the Establishment and Government, and to scrutinise

the status quo, if you like. Because most of the interviews tend

to be from established political parties, there is already a sense

from viewers that that means that there tend to be more guests

who are pro remaining in the EU, and that is why

they say it has bias. That is assuming this is only

going to be a referendum This is a referendum in which people

are being asked individually to vote They are not being asked

to back a particular party, they are being asked,

when they vote in this referendum, And they say it won't just be

politicians we will hear from. Viewers complained that to this

point it feels as if they have been So you are saying that's

going to change, then? Of course, the story so far has

been about the deal, what the Prime Minister

is doing in Brussels. Once the referendum campaign starts,

it will be very clearly balanced Even up to now we have been very

careful whilst representing the views of the Prime Minister

and the political parties, who are all on one side,

also to hear the other voices. At the moment, there is no

figurehead for the Leave campaign I go back to the idea that this

is an argument, this is between the argument and not

between the individuals So part of the story

is what is happening And of course we will cover that,

it is important that people understand what those arguments

are on the Leave side. But it doesn't mean that that

disrupts if you like the idea It looks more divided,

a figurehead kind of crystallises people's attention, you have got one

on one side and none on the other. Part of our obligation

during the referendum campaign is to hear from the range of voices

on both sides, and, you know, you have to look at the Remain side

to see how many different political parties and views from business

and so when you will hear, and on the Leave side,

to know that over a very long campaign, 16 weeks,

our job is to represent a lot of those views across much

of our output. It's not to channel this

into a single position. Over the next few months we are sure

to be looking again at how the EU referendum campaign is covered,

so please let us know your thoughts