:00:07. > :00:09.Hello and welcome to Newswatch with me, Samira Ahmed.
:00:10. > :00:22.Awards were being given out in Hollywood on Sunday night, but the
:00:23. > :00:27.BBC's Oscar coverage received criticism from some viewers. And how
:00:28. > :00:30.did this hoax to get on the Victoria Derbyshire show with a tale of
:00:31. > :00:36.misbehaviour on a flighty cleaned the travelling on? -- flight he
:00:37. > :00:40.claimed to be. It was lights, camera and action on
:00:41. > :00:45.Monday morning as the public work of the details of the 88 Academy Awards
:00:46. > :00:52.ceremony, held the night before in Los Angeles. And the Oscar goes
:00:53. > :00:57.to... Breakfast featured several appearances from our entertainment
:00:58. > :01:00.correspondent in Hollywood and a variety of guests at a studio
:01:01. > :01:07.discussion back home. We will come back to the films in a moment. The
:01:08. > :01:15.news channel continued the focused, with the awards leading that
:01:16. > :01:20.bulletin. Why was the first six minutes dedicated to the very
:01:21. > :01:24.shallow reporting of the Oscars? They should be reported but not as
:01:25. > :01:28.head of the news! At 9:30am there was a half-hour Oscars special, with
:01:29. > :01:34.discussion of the films and the frocks. There is much more on the
:01:35. > :01:38.BBC News website about all of that, the fashion, the films, the winners
:01:39. > :01:43.and the losers. There was indeed much more about all of that on the
:01:44. > :01:46.BBC News website and the BBC News Channel and BBC News Channel and BBC
:01:47. > :01:49.One bulletins continued to feature the subject of the day. Was all this
:01:50. > :02:12.attention justified? Opinion was divided, with one writing:
:02:13. > :02:15.But that was a minority view among those who contacted us. More typical
:02:16. > :02:58.was this: so what place with the Oscars or any
:02:59. > :03:06.entertainment story have? And in the lead up, should editors listen
:03:07. > :03:15.Donald -- think about this coverage, when he argued that:
:03:16. > :03:24.Our overseas, on my operations editor joins me now. There are
:03:25. > :03:29.claims of too much soft news at the expense of this kind of core mission
:03:30. > :03:34.of use. A lot of our viewers complained to Newswatch this week,
:03:35. > :03:37.feeling the same about seeing the Oscars coverage. I think it is fair
:03:38. > :03:41.to say that the Oscars is not in that part of the debate. It is one
:03:42. > :03:44.of the biggest entertainment stories of the year. It attracts a lot of
:03:45. > :03:50.attention and has people talking here and around the world and this
:03:51. > :03:54.year it was a very strong story. Successful Leonardo DiCaprio after
:03:55. > :03:57.many years. And also the diversity debate, which wasn't played out on
:03:58. > :04:01.the fringes of the Oscars but on the very floor of the reader, with Chris
:04:02. > :04:10.Roc making so many comments. -- of the arena, with Chric Rock. So it
:04:11. > :04:13.was a strong story and we had it at different times through the day. You
:04:14. > :04:15.focused on the morning, where we know there was a big audience
:04:16. > :04:21.interest in finding out what happened. So the web story we wrote
:04:22. > :04:27.about that was the most read news story on the site in a month of
:04:28. > :04:29.February around the world. So at that point there was a lot of
:04:30. > :04:33.prominence for the Oscars because we were bringing people up to speed
:04:34. > :04:36.about a story that clearly people were interested in. As the day
:04:37. > :04:44.progressed it moved down the running order is. At the 1pm and 6pm news
:04:45. > :04:48.bulletins it was the end items. So we did approach it in different
:04:49. > :04:53.ways, but we did that partly because of the different ways people consume
:04:54. > :04:56.the news. In terms of the amount of airtime, especially the run-up to
:04:57. > :04:59.it, people felt there was a lot of standing around, looking at a red
:05:00. > :05:03.carpet and commenting on peoples dresses. Is that the kind of news
:05:04. > :05:08.the BBC News Channel should be doing? I think if they're talking
:05:09. > :05:11.about it in the morning, there was a short period in the morning where
:05:12. > :05:14.stars are working the red carpet before and some of that afterwards,
:05:15. > :05:20.but that's where we got the fantastic interview with one of
:05:21. > :05:23.Britain's latest actors. That was the breaking news, reaction element.
:05:24. > :05:32.Actually things finished pretty quickly. We did our Oscars special
:05:33. > :05:36.at 9:30am on BBC News Because that was a good time to wrap it up. We
:05:37. > :05:40.moved on during the day to more head on issues of diversity and some of
:05:41. > :05:45.the more serious stories to come out of the event. The morning after it
:05:46. > :05:51.is very big in Breakfast news. 9am, when the news channel bulletin: gets
:05:52. > :05:54.going, it is the first six minutes. Even there was the half-hour special
:05:55. > :05:58.to come, can you see why viewers thought, why did they need to be six
:05:59. > :06:02.minutes at the top of the 9am bulletin as well? That was the only
:06:03. > :06:06.our in the hole daywear the Oscars was believed story on the news
:06:07. > :06:12.channel during the day. -- only time in the whole day wear. The news
:06:13. > :06:17.channel went on to lead with the trouble on the Greece-Macedonia
:06:18. > :06:20.border. We knew that was the pick point where people wanted to catch
:06:21. > :06:26.up on the Oscar story and we did it very quickly and to be honest at the
:06:27. > :06:30.same length we do any lead story. A video report and a live
:06:31. > :06:34.correspondent. I don't think it was out of kilter. We just wanted to
:06:35. > :06:38.allow people to catch up on the news at that point and then they got
:06:39. > :06:44.other stories before we came back to it at half past nine. Thanks so
:06:45. > :06:48.much. Let us know your thoughts on the
:06:49. > :06:52.role of entertainment stories, or on any aspect of BBC News. Details of
:06:53. > :06:54.how to contact us at the end of the programme.
:06:55. > :06:58.Before that, two stories early in the week dealt with migrants in
:06:59. > :07:03.different parts of Europe and both attracted the attention of Newswatch
:07:04. > :07:05.viewers. Monday's News at ten the AMP reported on a confrontation
:07:06. > :07:12.between police and migrants between the border at Greece and Macedonia
:07:13. > :07:17.and before that clashes as police moved into the camp at Calais.
:07:18. > :07:19.What was meant to be a gentle addiction through encouragement and
:07:20. > :07:27.information became our blood exchange of tear gas and frocks,
:07:28. > :07:30.hurled at police. -- rocks. Then the battle was under way again. A second
:07:31. > :07:35.fire in a place someone yesterday called time. Water cannon brought in
:07:36. > :07:41.not for the fire but for the arsonists and then tear gas for
:07:42. > :07:47.anyone still standing nearby. This is the view from the Macedonian
:07:48. > :07:52.side. A border guard fires teargas directly at the migrants. On the
:07:53. > :07:55.other side of the fence, the man in the front of the picture in the blue
:07:56. > :08:01.jacket is hit by that canister. There's panic as the toxic gas
:08:02. > :08:06.starts spreading. A boy staggers from the crush retching. Others
:08:07. > :08:13.collapse with their eyes and lungs burning. Today, on the European
:08:14. > :08:14.border, children were tear gassed. Merlin from Gloucester wrote in
:08:15. > :08:53.about that last piece: Brenda Taylor was more worried about
:08:54. > :08:57.the images. And we received this telephone
:08:58. > :09:04.message. I was watching the news on the 29th of February to see the
:09:05. > :09:09.coverage of the clearance of the camps in France. It almost seemed
:09:10. > :09:13.like it was only one side. It was criticising the police for the way
:09:14. > :09:16.they acted, firing tear gas, it just seemed like it was about the police
:09:17. > :09:20.or the time but they didn't go on about the other side. The way they
:09:21. > :09:27.were acting, The Rolling Stones. If you are going to report the news,
:09:28. > :09:30.don't report the buyers. -- throwing stones. We put that to BBC News and
:09:31. > :10:04.they told us: finally, the strange tale of the
:10:05. > :10:09.stag party, Ryanair flight and the prankster. Last week the flight was
:10:10. > :10:14.after a group of 12 men became drunk, rowdy and violence, with
:10:15. > :10:17.passengers saying one of them exposed himself. BBC News reported
:10:18. > :10:22.the story and invited anyone on the plane to come forward with
:10:23. > :10:25.information. One man did so and after a telephone conversation with
:10:26. > :10:29.the journalist was invited on to the Victoria Derbyshire show to describe
:10:30. > :10:35.what happened. It was a crazy flight. They were drunk from the get
:10:36. > :10:39.go. About 5-10 minutes into the flight when we were in the air one
:10:40. > :10:44.of these stag members stalled the trousers. So one of them was exposed
:10:45. > :10:49.and he stood up and he was being boisterous, he was naked from the
:10:50. > :10:52.waist down. The problem, Daria Stevas later revealed that he had
:10:53. > :10:58.not been on the plane and had made up his entire testimony as a hoax.
:10:59. > :11:02.-- Darius Davis. On a blog, the man, who was a comedian, said at no point
:11:03. > :11:06.did you have to provide proof that he was on the flight, expressing
:11:07. > :11:07.surprise that lazy journalism allowed him on the BBC News. A
:11:08. > :11:18.Twitter user posted this: For its part, the BBC had this to
:11:19. > :11:35.say. Many thanks to all of those who
:11:36. > :11:36.contributed to the programme this week.
:11:37. > :11:40.If you want to share your opinions on BBC News and current affairs,
:11:41. > :11:51.or appear on the programme, you can call us, or e-mail.
:11:52. > :11:55.You can post your thoughts on Twitter, and do have a look at the
:11:56. > :12:09.Join us again next week. The buyer. -- goodbyes.
:12:10. > :12:12.Snow has been causing issues out and about and it still will do
:12:13. > :12:16.Ice a big concern however where we've had showers,
:12:17. > :12:20.even if they haven't been of snow, things are freezing over there now.