10/06/2016 Newswatch

down 116 points. Full coverage of the final farewell to Muhammad Ali,

but a little early on than normal, this week 's edition of Newswatch.

Welcome to Newswatch. Was the death of Muhammad Ali are significant

enough event to blow almost all other news off the screen on

Saturday? And as a search for clarity in the referendum debate

continues, did this debate generate more heat than light? The BBC have

tried to respond to the widely held perception amongst the public that

they are not getting the truth, unvarnished facts in the debate over

membership of the European Union. Thursday was deemed EU referendum

questions they. Five editors gave their answers to queries from the

public about the consequences of leaving of remaining in the EU. What

some challenged those responses, one anonymous viewer appreciated the

effort... Yes, debate. There will be more of

them in the coming days. We saw some lively exchanges this week mostly

featuring the comedian and remain campaign supporter, Eddie Isard. --

Izzard. Because we want the control... I think we should make

you change sees if you go on like this! I know, I know. We are trying

to make the whole economy better. The economy is better if we are

inside. No it isn't, no it isn't! Yes it is! We try to avoid pantomime

here. One viewer was unimpressed. He said...

The referendum has dominated broadcasting news out route over the

first half of this year, but it has been a year full of the deaths of

celebrities. The BBC's coverage of it has often proved controversial.

Last Saturday morning we woke up to news of the death of the man

considered by many, including himself, to be the greatest. One of

the greatest personalities in world sport, the boxer Muhammad Ali has

died. I am the champion, the real champion, there will never be one

like me... All of the four-hour programme followed was dedicated to

Muhammad Ali. Segments of other programmes like Newswatch would

drop. The news channel continued in a similar vein throughout the day

and all of the BBC One tea-time bulletin was devoted to the boxer

with a special tribute programme replacing the drama. Some viewers

did not pull their punches in response.

Two more viewers who contacted as this week, grey Staughton and John

Maclean joining now, and in the BBC's corner is deputy news editor

Toby Castle. I worked at the news that Muhammad Ali had passed away.

It was on the lunchtime news. By the six o'clock News it was a single

issue news bulletin. By that time it was not news, in that sense. I had

always prided the BBC on in-depth coverage of all news, not just a

single item. Did you have an issue about the relevance of Muhammad Ali

to some viewers? I'm the same era as him, sadly, but then I reflected on

my children who are in their 30s. They would have no relevance to that

particular item. Some people might be saying, who is he? That meant

there is a disenfranchisement of much of the news. You are younger.

It might have been because Muhammad Ali did not play a part in your

growing up. I am 24. I was well aware who you was. I was intrigued

but it was frustrating that there was a much coverage given to it. The

BBC News channel ran for a large part of Saturday. Lots of programmes

that are normally order were moved, like Click, that I normally enjoy,

that had been moved to replay coverage over and over again about

the death of Muhammad Ali. So it seemed like you had no other news

including a bulletin that was 14 hours after the news had broken that

Muhammad Ali had died. I would reject that it is a news blackout. I

accept that the tea-time bulletin was devoted to Muhammad Ali. I have

no regrets. 14 hours later? It was the tea-time bulletin of that day.

It was, I would say, one of the most significant stories of the week.

Definitely the most significant story of Saturday. And the BBC, I

personally believe, has a responsibility to provide depth and

context to stories. And I felt that talking to John 's point

specifically about audiences that might not be aware of the

significance of, not just the sporting figure that Muhammad Ali

was, but arguably his influence beyond that, culturally, and I felt

that those items on my bulletin provided that context for the

audience. What do you feel about Toby 's justification? I appreciate

that he is right to give depth to this, showing the importance of

Muhammad Ali is a boxer and activist. But by 8:30pm in the

evening, it should have been established, and not the entire news

bulletin at the expense of everything else that was going on.

Grace, what did you think? I think it is concerning how generally the

media has increasingly focused on celebrities. We're having a of

celebrity deaths this year because of the way the media has changed in

the last century there are more famous people dying than centuries

ago. That kind of rock 'n' roll demographic. I don't think it is

healthy for the British public to get so emotional about people they

have not met Allsop no disrespect to them, but I don't think it is good

that we obsess quite so much about some individuals. It is better for

the news to give information that can inspire us to do useful things

or give information we need. Getting on with this point that grace me, it

is not the job of the BBC to be part of the collective morning and fill

hours of airtime. You can give information, you can put obituaries

online and direct people there but keep the news bulletins for news.

Specifically we are talking about Muhammad Ali year, and I would say

that is more than just a celebrity death. It is a significant

individual. He went beyond sport. But we are talking about more than

three hours of a four our breakfast programme being devoted to just his

death. The evening schedule, the BBC, the network, decided to put

their tribute in prime time which was the right decision to make. We

followed that prime-time tribute programme with the late news

bulletin and if you watch that bulletin, John Sobell, American

editor, led that with all of the reporting about the specifics of

what had happened that day, the reaction to the announcement of his

death that broke in the early hours of the morning. And we could then

therefore reflect what happened through the day in a packaged news

programme. You have all these online resources. If you want to clear

prime time to show a documentary, shouldn't the news channel then be

moving on? Why is everyone all doing all the same coverage? I cannot

speak about the decision of the network to put the tribute on in

prime time. I can speak about our decisions, and I believe that we

gave comprehensive context and analysis for our audience across

what was a very significant news story that day. Your thoughts,

Grace? Why have all this coverage dedicated to one person when telling

us about it isn't going to change anything or help anyone? I still

maintain, maybe I am unique but I watch the BBC because of its breadth

of coverage as well as depth of analysis. And I did feel on Saturday

that that breadth disappeared and that perspective was lost. Thank you

all very much. We have heard the observation that the death was

described as breaking news many hours after it happened. It is an

example of a phenomenon that Andrew Stevenson and spotted and he rang

with a question and suggestion. For how long can a story be considered

to be breaking? Sometimes stories carry on breaking four hours. Surely

there has got to be a limit to this. It can be in pending or just

pending, breaking, developing. Maybe even old hat. Remember, if Newswatch

is not shown on its normal slot, you should be able to catch up with ours

on the BBC iPlayer. If you want to share your opinions on BBC News and

current affairs coverage, you can contact us...

We would not back to hear your thoughts about BBC news coverage

again next week. -- we will be back. Good evening. It has been a week of

extremes. Today was no exception. We had some warm sunshine,