22/04/2016 Newswatch

involved in controlling the blaze. At ten o'clock Huw Edwards will be

here with a full round-up of the day's News, before that, it is time

for Newswatch. Hello and welcome to Newswatch

with me, Samira Ahmed. Celebrations across the country

to mark the Queen's 90th birthday, but should BBC News have been

joining in the party or asking hard And did the death of rock royalty

Prince receive the right amount You could hardly have failed

to notice that the Queen The BBC marked the landmark

with several special programmes and extensive coverage

on the News Channel She's done a few of these over

the years, the lighting of a beacon This occasion, of course, was hers -

the celebration of a 90th birthday. Responses to what was screened

varied very widely. Here's what he thought

of the coverage of Well, I can't deny that people

like myself would be And certainly, while the Queen

is Head of State, I wouldn't and couldn't wish for it not

to be covered. I'm asking for a sense

of proportion which obviously I felt that it went so over the top,

so obsequious, that there was no balance, and that's not

just true of the BBC, Yes, it's her 90th birthday

and she is the longest reigning British monarch,

but there was a loss of any The world's news and domestic

news don't stop simply But we've also been hearing

the opposite point of view, particularly following an interview

with Prince William shown Royal correspondent

Nicholas Witchell explored with the Prince what kind of King

he might become, and asked to what extent he shared

the Queen's devotion to duty. I take my responsibilities

very seriously, but it's about finding your own way,

at the right time, and if you're not careful, duty can sort of weigh

you down an awful lot I think you have to develop

into the duty role. You know why I'm asking you this -

it's because there is an impression in some quarters that

you are in some way You will have seen or I am sure

people will have told you about some of the stories,

some of the headlines "Work-shy William" I think

some of them have said. There has also been criticism

of the Duchess of similar vein. That line of questioning

infuriated some.... It's not the first time we've heard

allegations of a lack of respect Here he is last Friday,

reporting on the climb by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge up

to a Buddhist monastery NICHOLAS WITCHELL: All very

picturesque, except that William and Catherine are in Bhutan,

briefly, at the request of the Foreign Office,

supposedly on business. There is a tricky balance

on a day such as this. We shouldn't forget that this

is an official visit, It is also an opportunity,

of course, for some pretty spectacular sightseeing,

and the couple's wish, perhaps understandably,

is to do that Richard Haynes thought those

comments were uncalled for, But again,

opinion was divided... So, sycophantic toadying

or snide impertinence? The BBC's Head of Newsgathering,

Jonathan Munro, is with me Was there a line you worked out,

about where the BBC's It's really interesting

that the postbag is so divided. We know that royal news stories do

divide the audience, I think there are a few specific

that viewers of Newswatch have I think that the Bhutan

tour, for example... It's perfectly proper for us

to raise the question We're not coming to a conclusion,

that is for the viewers to come to their own minds about,

but it is perfectly valid And yet overwhelmingly hundreds

of the complaints were saying the BBC was far too gushing,

and particularly that the BBC's impartiality tends to go out

the window when it comes I don't think we were gushing,

but it was a 90th birthday. It was a joyful moment and I don't

think we need to get too sombre or analytical about a moment of joy

in someone's life. But there were other

voices in our coverage. Jeremy Corbyn, perhaps

the most prominent one, who trod his own line very

carefully, and we reported that. We went to Jamaica, to interview

the Prime Minister of Jamaica for Breakfast News on Thursday,

whose view is that the days of the Queen being the Head of State

for his nation should be over. We interviewed Republic

on Newsnight, so there were parts of our output

which addressed the other But on a birthday, on a day

of celebration, inevitably and I think rightly,

the overwhelming coverage And, of course, many headlines

about Nicholas Witchell bringing up those accusations from the papers

about being work-shy in his interview

with Prince William. I think it was, and I think

if you look at William's reaction in the interview,

I don't think he looks like someone who was thrown into answering

a question he wasn't expecting. If we interview people in the public

eye and we don't ask them questions about allegations or smears,

or whatever it might be, then the opposite case against us

is that we are doing The royals don't expect us to do

public relations job and we don't want to do a public relations job,

so there are times when it is appropriate to ask questions

which stretch the interviewee, in this case Prince William, but it

could have been anyone in the eye, into answering questions

which we don't very often get ITN's presenter and the former Royal

correspondent Tom Bradby is famously a personal

friend of Prince William. How close do you think BBC royal

correspondents I think the closest

of any correspondent gets to someone they're covering

a lot is something I am always It's no different from

a royal correspondent They know the politicians they're

covering at a certain level, they're perfectly civil and friendly

to them, but there needs to be a distance, otherwise the scrutiny

and the sort of questioning that we want to get out

of a specialist correspondent and analysis they bring

can be compromised. I think we're pretty in the right

place, to be honest. Inevitably, as you pursue

a journalistic career in one specialism for a lengthly period

of time, people perceive that you have strong relationships

with people who you are covering. A lot of those perceptions

are not always accurat, and I think it's fair to say

that the relationship Recently Channel 4 News revealed it

turned down an interview with Prince Charles

because of the editorial control Is there a deal between the BBC

and royals over interviews No, and I think Channel 4 News,

for the record, were right. I think the idea that we go

into an interview and have parameters set down before us,

with other people controlling our editorial agenda,

is wrong, it is not the modern era, The BBC asks the questions

the BBC wants to ask, and that is absolutely the rule

of any kind of editorially Thursday evening raised

another issue for BBC News. Should a Queen ever be upstaged

by a Prince? # Why do we scream at

each other...#. Or rather by Prince, the musician,

whose death was announced just as Her Majesty was preparing

to light the first of hundreds of beacons across the UK,

to celebrate her birthday. Opinion was divided over the extent

to which news of the American singer's sudden death should have

broken into and superseded coverage But when the News Channel

did report on Prince, Finally, an example of a problem

of duplication occasionally highlighted to us by viewers

of regional TV news bulletins. Thursday's National News at One

featured five minutes or so on the conviction of two men

for smuggling weapons worth more than ?100,000 on a boat

from France to Kent last year. Straight after that programme,

viewers in the Kent and Sussex region were shown their own ten

minute local bulletin. Today's main news in the South East:

Guilty of smuggling a huge cache Harry Shilling and Michael Defraine

are told they could be We will get the latest reaction live

from the Old Bailey... Andy Shakeshaft was watching

and e-mailed us shortly after. Thanks for all your

comments this week. If you want to share your opinions

on BBC News or current affairs, or even appear

on the programme, you can. Call us on 0370 010 6676,

or e-mail us. Have a look at our website

for previous discussions. That is all from us,

we will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News

coverage again next week.