09/09/2016 Newswatch

Now, at 10pm, Fiona Bruce will be here with a full round-up of the

news. Now it is time for Newswatch. Hello and welcome to Newswatch

with me, Samira Ahmed. Another argument about privacy

versus the right to know. Should BBC News have been less keen

to follow up last weekend's tabloid And did the BBC help to give these

protesters the oxygen of publicity? First, a subject that is bound

to dominate the news for a while, how and when will we be leaving

the European Union BBC News explored those questions

in depth on Monday in it For Fiona Youlton,

this was overkill: There were more questions

asked about news priorities on Tuesday when the News At Ten led

not on that day's resignation by Keith Vaz or the sentencing

of Anjem Choudary, or reports of chlorine gas attacks

in Syria, but on this. Tonight at Ten: A special report

on the surge in gun violence In Chicago, gun attacks

have increased by nearly Most of the incidents

involve young black men. It will cost you your

life, literally. The city's death toll

from gun violence by the end of August is more than 500,

which is higher That topic occupied the first ten

minutes of the bulletin, to the bemusement

of scores of viewers. One of them, Mike Cartwright,

recorded his thoughts on camera: My friends and I were watching

the ten o'clock evening news on Tuesday, and we were

puzzled to say the least. Why was the Chicago gun crime

story leading the news? There was no obvious peg

to hang it on. It had not come to the forefront

of the American elections. The figures, though shocking

and depressing, seemed a bit new. It had all the hallmarks of a story

dragged to the front of the news Or perhaps it was an extract

from a Panorama special. Whatever, it stood out

like a sore thumb. Thank you to Mike Cartwright

for that, and we had another viewer's contribution

after a demonstration from the Black Lives Matter

at London's City Airport led Tuesday's News At One

reported on the incident. It is not clear how some protestors

got onto the runway. Some reports suggest they swam

across the Thames to get there. We have called for a shutdown

of London City Airport because the climate crisis

is a racist crisis. From Newham to New Orleans,

time and again, we see the environmental cost

of the aviation industry hitting working-class communities

of colour first and hardest. Trevor Bell was one of a number

of viewers who contacted I was concerned this week

about the midweek lunchtime news where they were reporting

the invasion of London City Airport by the Black Lives

Matter protest group. They inconvenienced many travellers

and their activity was illegal to get onto the runway

in the first place. On the lunchtime news,

they gave them several moments of unchallenged free publicity

to air their views. What should have happened was people

did not need to know what protest they were campaigning for, just

the fact there had been a protest. Surely, from now on,

anybody, whatever their views may be, could invade something and do

an illegal activity and be given Do record on camera or just e-mail

us your thoughts on any Details of how to contact us coming

up at the end of the programme. Now, scandals involving the private

lives of politicians have been a staple diet for tabloid Sunday

newspapers over the years, and they can lead BBC News to having

difficult decisions about the extent to which they should

follow up such stories. Last weekend's example involved

the Labour MP Keith Vaz, long-standing chairman

of the Home Affairs The Sunday Mirror reported

that he had paid for the services of male prostitutes,

but initially the BBC seemed reluctant to repeat the allegations,

prompting an exchange on Twitter By Sunday evening, BBC One's late

news bulletin was showing a report There was no sign of him at home

today, his career in trouble because of allegations

in the Sunday Mirror. The allegations allege that

Keith Vaz paid for two Eastern European male escorts

to visit him one evening last month According to the paper,

Mr Vaz said his name was Jim, It alleges they discussed

using the party drug poppers. As the pressure on Mr Vaz grew

in the following couple of days, resulting in his resignation

on Tuesday from his select committee There was a suggestion that the MP

had broken any laws, and he called it "deeply disturbing"

at the Sunday Mirror should have paid male prostitutes to record

a conversation with him secretly. That prompted D Wood

from Cheshire to write to us: To explore those questions,

I have with me the BBC's editor There seems to have been

a BBC reluctance to take Given it broke on a Saturday night,

were you squeamish? I think a story like this is really

important to take enough time with it and get it right

and know what we are doing. That is true of any

story but particularly We have to be right

when we put it on air. It came in very late on Saturday

night into Sunday morning, and actually we had it on air

on Radio 4 news bulletins at 9am. It was on Andrew Marr

during the newspaper review and then it was picked up by the News Channel

at 10.15 and run from there. Then the bulletins ran

it from that time. So, absolutely, I think it is right

for us to be defending opposition These are really serious allegations

that a very senior member of Parliament faces and it is right

that we take our time I should say at this point

that our competitors, at that point, our main

competitors who are Sky News, they also did not run it

at that time either. I think we were the first to do that

on broadcast news. You know, there was nothing, really,

of any substance on three When did the BBC start making

calls about this story? Was it crucial to speak to Keith Vaz

before the BBC could run that story? I think it is really important

that we did a right to reply to somebody who is involved in those

kinds of allegations. What was the point when you felt,

we can run this story now. I think it is when you have

given enough time. When you have tried all

of the normal press numbers and you have tried the legal

representatives, and it is clear, it is becoming clear,

that they are not And also it is really important,

an important part of the morning that I was doing was talking

to the BBC's lawyers about what we could say

on-air and in what style. Given that the Mirror had the story

originally and the BBC did not. Of course, once you did start

covering it, some viewers have felt that it actually is about private

behaviour that is legal and both in the relationship of paying

for sex and drugs bought. Some would feel that the BBC maybe

should not have been giving it That is why we spend our

time making decisions. First of all, we will make the calls

to see whether we can verify Then it is a separate decision along

editorial guidelines and public interest,

why we take these stories on. In the end, we could review that

Keith Vaz was chair of the select committee that was looking into,

itself, prostitution and drug laws, so there was an immediate

conflict of interest there, We felt that actually

added to the reason Keith Vaz was not denying the story

and, after several calls, many, many calls to himself

and his representatives, we felt that we could run

the story as it was. These decisions are, each of them,

they are individual and each of them That is why we will always

defend not rushing Finally, we must talk

about the biggest political challenge at the moment,

which is covering Brexit. On the one hand, there is huge

uncertainty in on the other hand we have got a prayer ministry

who said she will not be giving a running

commentary on negotiations. Where does that leave the BBC

and its political news service in informing the public

about what is going on? There is a huge amount

of information we need to find out. As you rightly say, we are not

getting a lot of detail at the moment and it is up to us

to do the journalism and try and find out what will be happening

and what will be coming. The next stage will be trying

to explain that to the audience and tell them why it matters to them

and what effect it will have Finally, when we hear breaking

news, we often react But last Friday, users of the BBC

News app were sent this alert, which sent some

into a state of hysteria. Many people tweeted

about their confusion or even alarm, What had happened was

that the alert was not in Arabic but actually in Bengali,

about a police raid It had been mistakenly sent out

to BBC News app subscribers. The BBC apologised,

blaming human error. Thank you for all of your

comments this week. You can share your opinions on

BBC News current affairs by calling Or you can post your

thoughts on Twitter, We will be back to hear your

thoughts again on BBC Coming up in Sportsday,

we will have the latest from Rio, as Paralympics GB continue to win

plenty of medals on day two. Sophie Thornhill

and her guide Helen Scott