:00:00. > :00:00.involved in controlling the blaze. At ten o'clock Huw Edwards will be
:00:00. > :00:00.here with a full round-up of the day's News, before that, it is time
:00:00. > :00:10.for Newswatch. Hello and welcome to Newswatch
:00:11. > :00:12.with me, Samira Ahmed. Celebrations across the country
:00:13. > :00:16.to mark the Queen's 90th birthday, but should BBC News have been
:00:17. > :00:21.joining in the party or asking hard And did the death of rock royalty
:00:22. > :00:27.Prince receive the right amount You could hardly have failed
:00:28. > :00:37.to notice that the Queen The BBC marked the landmark
:00:38. > :00:41.with several special programmes and extensive coverage
:00:42. > :00:43.on the News Channel She's done a few of these over
:00:44. > :00:50.the years, the lighting of a beacon This occasion, of course, was hers -
:00:51. > :01:03.the celebration of a 90th birthday. Responses to what was screened
:01:04. > :01:35.varied very widely. Here's what he thought
:01:36. > :01:38.of the coverage of Well, I can't deny that people
:01:39. > :01:50.like myself would be And certainly, while the Queen
:01:51. > :01:55.is Head of State, I wouldn't and couldn't wish for it not
:01:56. > :01:57.to be covered. I'm asking for a sense
:01:58. > :01:59.of proportion which obviously I felt that it went so over the top,
:02:00. > :02:07.so obsequious, that there was no balance, and that's not
:02:08. > :02:09.just true of the BBC, Yes, it's her 90th birthday
:02:10. > :02:18.and she is the longest reigning British monarch,
:02:19. > :02:25.but there was a loss of any The world's news and domestic
:02:26. > :02:28.news don't stop simply But we've also been hearing
:02:29. > :02:35.the opposite point of view, particularly following an interview
:02:36. > :02:37.with Prince William shown Royal correspondent
:02:38. > :02:40.Nicholas Witchell explored with the Prince what kind of King
:02:41. > :02:43.he might become, and asked to what extent he shared
:02:44. > :02:45.the Queen's devotion to duty. I take my responsibilities
:02:46. > :02:53.very seriously, but it's about finding your own way,
:02:54. > :02:56.at the right time, and if you're not careful, duty can sort of weigh
:02:57. > :02:59.you down an awful lot I think you have to develop
:03:00. > :03:05.into the duty role. You know why I'm asking you this -
:03:06. > :03:08.it's because there is an impression in some quarters that
:03:09. > :03:12.you are in some way You will have seen or I am sure
:03:13. > :03:15.people will have told you about some of the stories,
:03:16. > :03:18.some of the headlines "Work-shy William" I think
:03:19. > :03:23.some of them have said. There has also been criticism
:03:24. > :03:25.of the Duchess of similar vein. That line of questioning
:03:26. > :03:53.infuriated some.... It's not the first time we've heard
:03:54. > :04:00.allegations of a lack of respect Here he is last Friday,
:04:01. > :04:04.reporting on the climb by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge up
:04:05. > :04:07.to a Buddhist monastery NICHOLAS WITCHELL: All very
:04:08. > :04:11.picturesque, except that William and Catherine are in Bhutan,
:04:12. > :04:14.briefly, at the request of the Foreign Office,
:04:15. > :04:17.supposedly on business. There is a tricky balance
:04:18. > :04:23.on a day such as this. We shouldn't forget that this
:04:24. > :04:25.is an official visit, It is also an opportunity,
:04:26. > :04:28.of course, for some pretty spectacular sightseeing,
:04:29. > :04:30.and the couple's wish, perhaps understandably,
:04:31. > :04:31.is to do that Richard Haynes thought those
:04:32. > :04:35.comments were uncalled for, But again,
:04:36. > :05:15.opinion was divided... So, sycophantic toadying
:05:16. > :05:18.or snide impertinence? The BBC's Head of Newsgathering,
:05:19. > :05:21.Jonathan Munro, is with me Was there a line you worked out,
:05:22. > :05:29.about where the BBC's It's really interesting
:05:30. > :05:33.that the postbag is so divided. We know that royal news stories do
:05:34. > :05:36.divide the audience, I think there are a few specific
:05:37. > :05:42.that viewers of Newswatch have I think that the Bhutan
:05:43. > :05:46.tour, for example... It's perfectly proper for us
:05:47. > :05:50.to raise the question We're not coming to a conclusion,
:05:51. > :05:55.that is for the viewers to come to their own minds about,
:05:56. > :05:58.but it is perfectly valid And yet overwhelmingly hundreds
:05:59. > :06:07.of the complaints were saying the BBC was far too gushing,
:06:08. > :06:10.and particularly that the BBC's impartiality tends to go out
:06:11. > :06:12.the window when it comes I don't think we were gushing,
:06:13. > :06:16.but it was a 90th birthday. It was a joyful moment and I don't
:06:17. > :06:20.think we need to get too sombre or analytical about a moment of joy
:06:21. > :06:22.in someone's life. But there were other
:06:23. > :06:24.voices in our coverage. Jeremy Corbyn, perhaps
:06:25. > :06:26.the most prominent one, who trod his own line very
:06:27. > :06:28.carefully, and we reported that. We went to Jamaica, to interview
:06:29. > :06:31.the Prime Minister of Jamaica for Breakfast News on Thursday,
:06:32. > :06:34.whose view is that the days of the Queen being the Head of State
:06:35. > :06:44.for his nation should be over. We interviewed Republic
:06:45. > :06:46.on Newsnight, so there were parts of our output
:06:47. > :06:48.which addressed the other But on a birthday, on a day
:06:49. > :06:51.of celebration, inevitably and I think rightly,
:06:52. > :06:53.the overwhelming coverage And, of course, many headlines
:06:54. > :06:58.about Nicholas Witchell bringing up those accusations from the papers
:06:59. > :07:01.about being work-shy in his interview
:07:02. > :07:02.with Prince William. I think it was, and I think
:07:03. > :07:06.if you look at William's reaction in the interview,
:07:07. > :07:10.I don't think he looks like someone who was thrown into answering
:07:11. > :07:14.a question he wasn't expecting. If we interview people in the public
:07:15. > :07:18.eye and we don't ask them questions about allegations or smears,
:07:19. > :07:20.or whatever it might be, then the opposite case against us
:07:21. > :07:24.is that we are doing The royals don't expect us to do
:07:25. > :07:33.public relations job and we don't want to do a public relations job,
:07:34. > :07:37.so there are times when it is appropriate to ask questions
:07:38. > :07:39.which stretch the interviewee, in this case Prince William, but it
:07:40. > :07:42.could have been anyone in the eye, into answering questions
:07:43. > :07:44.which we don't very often get ITN's presenter and the former Royal
:07:45. > :07:48.correspondent Tom Bradby is famously a personal
:07:49. > :07:49.friend of Prince William. How close do you think BBC royal
:07:50. > :07:51.correspondents I think the closest
:07:52. > :08:04.of any correspondent gets to someone they're covering
:08:05. > :08:07.a lot is something I am always It's no different from
:08:08. > :08:10.a royal correspondent They know the politicians they're
:08:11. > :08:13.covering at a certain level, they're perfectly civil and friendly
:08:14. > :08:16.to them, but there needs to be a distance, otherwise the scrutiny
:08:17. > :08:18.and the sort of questioning that we want to get out
:08:19. > :08:21.of a specialist correspondent and analysis they bring
:08:22. > :08:22.can be compromised. I think we're pretty in the right
:08:23. > :08:25.place, to be honest. Inevitably, as you pursue
:08:26. > :08:27.a journalistic career in one specialism for a lengthly period
:08:28. > :08:33.of time, people perceive that you have strong relationships
:08:34. > :08:36.with people who you are covering. A lot of those perceptions
:08:37. > :08:38.are not always accurat, and I think it's fair to say
:08:39. > :08:40.that the relationship Recently Channel 4 News revealed it
:08:41. > :08:45.turned down an interview with Prince Charles
:08:46. > :08:47.because of the editorial control Is there a deal between the BBC
:08:48. > :08:51.and royals over interviews No, and I think Channel 4 News,
:08:52. > :08:56.for the record, were right. I think the idea that we go
:08:57. > :09:00.into an interview and have parameters set down before us,
:09:01. > :09:03.with other people controlling our editorial agenda,
:09:04. > :09:06.is wrong, it is not the modern era, The BBC asks the questions
:09:07. > :09:11.the BBC wants to ask, and that is absolutely the rule
:09:12. > :09:13.of any kind of editorially Thursday evening raised
:09:14. > :09:23.another issue for BBC News. Should a Queen ever be upstaged
:09:24. > :09:25.by a Prince? # Why do we scream at
:09:26. > :09:28.each other...#. Or rather by Prince, the musician,
:09:29. > :09:33.whose death was announced just as Her Majesty was preparing
:09:34. > :09:37.to light the first of hundreds of beacons across the UK,
:09:38. > :09:39.to celebrate her birthday. Opinion was divided over the extent
:09:40. > :09:42.to which news of the American singer's sudden death should have
:09:43. > :09:45.broken into and superseded coverage But when the News Channel
:09:46. > :10:15.did report on Prince, Finally, an example of a problem
:10:16. > :10:45.of duplication occasionally highlighted to us by viewers
:10:46. > :10:48.of regional TV news bulletins. Thursday's National News at One
:10:49. > :10:52.featured five minutes or so on the conviction of two men
:10:53. > :10:55.for smuggling weapons worth more than ?100,000 on a boat
:10:56. > :10:58.from France to Kent last year. Straight after that programme,
:10:59. > :11:02.viewers in the Kent and Sussex region were shown their own ten
:11:03. > :11:06.minute local bulletin. Today's main news in the South East:
:11:07. > :11:09.Guilty of smuggling a huge cache Harry Shilling and Michael Defraine
:11:10. > :11:14.are told they could be We will get the latest reaction live
:11:15. > :11:21.from the Old Bailey... Andy Shakeshaft was watching
:11:22. > :11:40.and e-mailed us shortly after. Thanks for all your
:11:41. > :11:47.comments this week. If you want to share your opinions
:11:48. > :11:50.on BBC News or current affairs, or even appear
:11:51. > :11:52.on the programme, you can. Call us on 0370 010 6676,
:11:53. > :11:55.or e-mail us. Have a look at our website
:11:56. > :12:04.for previous discussions. That is all from us,
:12:05. > :12:07.we will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News
:12:08. > :12:11.coverage again next week.