:00:00. > :00:00.Now, at 10pm, Fiona Bruce will be here with a full round-up of the
:00:00. > :00:10.news. Now it is time for Newswatch. Hello and welcome to Newswatch
:00:11. > :00:12.with me, Samira Ahmed. Another argument about privacy
:00:13. > :00:14.versus the right to know. Should BBC News have been less keen
:00:15. > :00:18.to follow up last weekend's tabloid And did the BBC help to give these
:00:19. > :00:24.protesters the oxygen of publicity? First, a subject that is bound
:00:25. > :00:35.to dominate the news for a while, how and when will we be leaving
:00:36. > :00:38.the European Union BBC News explored those questions
:00:39. > :00:47.in depth on Monday in it For Fiona Youlton,
:00:48. > :00:57.this was overkill: There were more questions
:00:58. > :01:20.asked about news priorities on Tuesday when the News At Ten led
:01:21. > :01:23.not on that day's resignation by Keith Vaz or the sentencing
:01:24. > :01:26.of Anjem Choudary, or reports of chlorine gas attacks
:01:27. > :01:28.in Syria, but on this. Tonight at Ten: A special report
:01:29. > :01:31.on the surge in gun violence In Chicago, gun attacks
:01:32. > :01:36.have increased by nearly Most of the incidents
:01:37. > :01:43.involve young black men. It will cost you your
:01:44. > :01:49.life, literally. The city's death toll
:01:50. > :01:52.from gun violence by the end of August is more than 500,
:01:53. > :01:54.which is higher That topic occupied the first ten
:01:55. > :01:59.minutes of the bulletin, to the bemusement
:02:00. > :02:01.of scores of viewers. One of them, Mike Cartwright,
:02:02. > :02:04.recorded his thoughts on camera: My friends and I were watching
:02:05. > :02:08.the ten o'clock evening news on Tuesday, and we were
:02:09. > :02:12.puzzled to say the least. Why was the Chicago gun crime
:02:13. > :02:17.story leading the news? There was no obvious peg
:02:18. > :02:19.to hang it on. It had not come to the forefront
:02:20. > :02:25.of the American elections. The figures, though shocking
:02:26. > :02:31.and depressing, seemed a bit new. It had all the hallmarks of a story
:02:32. > :02:34.dragged to the front of the news Or perhaps it was an extract
:02:35. > :02:43.from a Panorama special. Whatever, it stood out
:02:44. > :02:45.like a sore thumb. Thank you to Mike Cartwright
:02:46. > :02:48.for that, and we had another viewer's contribution
:02:49. > :02:49.after a demonstration from the Black Lives Matter
:02:50. > :02:52.at London's City Airport led Tuesday's News At One
:02:53. > :02:58.reported on the incident. It is not clear how some protestors
:02:59. > :03:01.got onto the runway. Some reports suggest they swam
:03:02. > :03:06.across the Thames to get there. We have called for a shutdown
:03:07. > :03:08.of London City Airport because the climate crisis
:03:09. > :03:11.is a racist crisis. From Newham to New Orleans,
:03:12. > :03:14.time and again, we see the environmental cost
:03:15. > :03:20.of the aviation industry hitting working-class communities
:03:21. > :03:23.of colour first and hardest. Trevor Bell was one of a number
:03:24. > :03:26.of viewers who contacted I was concerned this week
:03:27. > :03:33.about the midweek lunchtime news where they were reporting
:03:34. > :03:38.the invasion of London City Airport by the Black Lives
:03:39. > :03:41.Matter protest group. They inconvenienced many travellers
:03:42. > :03:45.and their activity was illegal to get onto the runway
:03:46. > :03:47.in the first place. On the lunchtime news,
:03:48. > :03:50.they gave them several moments of unchallenged free publicity
:03:51. > :03:56.to air their views. What should have happened was people
:03:57. > :04:02.did not need to know what protest they were campaigning for, just
:04:03. > :04:05.the fact there had been a protest. Surely, from now on,
:04:06. > :04:07.anybody, whatever their views may be, could invade something and do
:04:08. > :04:10.an illegal activity and be given Do record on camera or just e-mail
:04:11. > :04:22.us your thoughts on any Details of how to contact us coming
:04:23. > :04:28.up at the end of the programme. Now, scandals involving the private
:04:29. > :04:31.lives of politicians have been a staple diet for tabloid Sunday
:04:32. > :04:35.newspapers over the years, and they can lead BBC News to having
:04:36. > :04:39.difficult decisions about the extent to which they should
:04:40. > :04:42.follow up such stories. Last weekend's example involved
:04:43. > :04:48.the Labour MP Keith Vaz, long-standing chairman
:04:49. > :04:49.of the Home Affairs The Sunday Mirror reported
:04:50. > :04:53.that he had paid for the services of male prostitutes,
:04:54. > :04:55.but initially the BBC seemed reluctant to repeat the allegations,
:04:56. > :04:57.prompting an exchange on Twitter By Sunday evening, BBC One's late
:04:58. > :05:19.news bulletin was showing a report There was no sign of him at home
:05:20. > :05:25.today, his career in trouble because of allegations
:05:26. > :05:29.in the Sunday Mirror. The allegations allege that
:05:30. > :05:32.Keith Vaz paid for two Eastern European male escorts
:05:33. > :05:34.to visit him one evening last month According to the paper,
:05:35. > :05:39.Mr Vaz said his name was Jim, It alleges they discussed
:05:40. > :05:45.using the party drug poppers. As the pressure on Mr Vaz grew
:05:46. > :05:48.in the following couple of days, resulting in his resignation
:05:49. > :05:51.on Tuesday from his select committee There was a suggestion that the MP
:05:52. > :05:59.had broken any laws, and he called it "deeply disturbing"
:06:00. > :06:03.at the Sunday Mirror should have paid male prostitutes to record
:06:04. > :06:05.a conversation with him secretly. That prompted D Wood
:06:06. > :06:22.from Cheshire to write to us: To explore those questions,
:06:23. > :06:24.I have with me the BBC's editor There seems to have been
:06:25. > :06:30.a BBC reluctance to take Given it broke on a Saturday night,
:06:31. > :06:36.were you squeamish? I think a story like this is really
:06:37. > :06:39.important to take enough time with it and get it right
:06:40. > :06:42.and know what we are doing. That is true of any
:06:43. > :06:44.story but particularly We have to be right
:06:45. > :06:50.when we put it on air. It came in very late on Saturday
:06:51. > :06:54.night into Sunday morning, and actually we had it on air
:06:55. > :06:58.on Radio 4 news bulletins at 9am. It was on Andrew Marr
:06:59. > :07:02.during the newspaper review and then it was picked up by the News Channel
:07:03. > :07:06.at 10.15 and run from there. Then the bulletins ran
:07:07. > :07:09.it from that time. So, absolutely, I think it is right
:07:10. > :07:13.for us to be defending opposition These are really serious allegations
:07:14. > :07:18.that a very senior member of Parliament faces and it is right
:07:19. > :07:21.that we take our time I should say at this point
:07:22. > :07:24.that our competitors, at that point, our main
:07:25. > :07:27.competitors who are Sky News, they also did not run it
:07:28. > :07:29.at that time either. I think we were the first to do that
:07:30. > :07:33.on broadcast news. You know, there was nothing, really,
:07:34. > :07:36.of any substance on three When did the BBC start making
:07:37. > :07:41.calls about this story? Was it crucial to speak to Keith Vaz
:07:42. > :07:49.before the BBC could run that story? I think it is really important
:07:50. > :07:52.that we did a right to reply to somebody who is involved in those
:07:53. > :07:55.kinds of allegations. What was the point when you felt,
:07:56. > :07:59.we can run this story now. I think it is when you have
:08:00. > :08:02.given enough time. When you have tried all
:08:03. > :08:05.of the normal press numbers and you have tried the legal
:08:06. > :08:12.representatives, and it is clear, it is becoming clear,
:08:13. > :08:14.that they are not And also it is really important,
:08:15. > :08:18.an important part of the morning that I was doing was talking
:08:19. > :08:20.to the BBC's lawyers about what we could say
:08:21. > :08:22.on-air and in what style. Given that the Mirror had the story
:08:23. > :08:26.originally and the BBC did not. Of course, once you did start
:08:27. > :08:29.covering it, some viewers have felt that it actually is about private
:08:30. > :08:33.behaviour that is legal and both in the relationship of paying
:08:34. > :08:36.for sex and drugs bought. Some would feel that the BBC maybe
:08:37. > :08:39.should not have been giving it That is why we spend our
:08:40. > :08:45.time making decisions. First of all, we will make the calls
:08:46. > :08:48.to see whether we can verify Then it is a separate decision along
:08:49. > :08:52.editorial guidelines and public interest,
:08:53. > :08:57.why we take these stories on. In the end, we could review that
:08:58. > :09:04.Keith Vaz was chair of the select committee that was looking into,
:09:05. > :09:06.itself, prostitution and drug laws, so there was an immediate
:09:07. > :09:09.conflict of interest there, We felt that actually
:09:10. > :09:12.added to the reason Keith Vaz was not denying the story
:09:13. > :09:17.and, after several calls, many, many calls to himself
:09:18. > :09:20.and his representatives, we felt that we could run
:09:21. > :09:24.the story as it was. These decisions are, each of them,
:09:25. > :09:28.they are individual and each of them That is why we will always
:09:29. > :09:33.defend not rushing Finally, we must talk
:09:34. > :09:36.about the biggest political challenge at the moment,
:09:37. > :09:38.which is covering Brexit. On the one hand, there is huge
:09:39. > :09:41.uncertainty in on the other hand we have got a prayer ministry
:09:42. > :09:44.who said she will not be giving a running
:09:45. > :09:48.commentary on negotiations. Where does that leave the BBC
:09:49. > :09:52.and its political news service in informing the public
:09:53. > :09:54.about what is going on? There is a huge amount
:09:55. > :09:58.of information we need to find out. As you rightly say, we are not
:09:59. > :10:01.getting a lot of detail at the moment and it is up to us
:10:02. > :10:05.to do the journalism and try and find out what will be happening
:10:06. > :10:08.and what will be coming. The next stage will be trying
:10:09. > :10:11.to explain that to the audience and tell them why it matters to them
:10:12. > :10:14.and what effect it will have Finally, when we hear breaking
:10:15. > :10:21.news, we often react But last Friday, users of the BBC
:10:22. > :10:26.News app were sent this alert, which sent some
:10:27. > :10:30.into a state of hysteria. Many people tweeted
:10:31. > :10:34.about their confusion or even alarm, What had happened was
:10:35. > :10:52.that the alert was not in Arabic but actually in Bengali,
:10:53. > :10:55.about a police raid It had been mistakenly sent out
:10:56. > :11:00.to BBC News app subscribers. The BBC apologised,
:11:01. > :11:04.blaming human error. Thank you for all of your
:11:05. > :11:07.comments this week. You can share your opinions on
:11:08. > :11:10.BBC News current affairs by calling Or you can post your
:11:11. > :11:17.thoughts on Twitter, We will be back to hear your
:11:18. > :11:27.thoughts again on BBC Coming up in Sportsday,
:11:28. > :11:39.we will have the latest from Rio, as Paralympics GB continue to win
:11:40. > :11:43.plenty of medals on day two. Sophie Thornhill
:11:44. > :11:46.and her guide Helen Scott