:00:00. > :00:13.featured in a sex video. Now time for Newswatch.
:00:14. > :00:16.Welcome to the programme. Coming up on this programme, it may be a
:00:17. > :00:20.national institution but was the move of the great British big up to
:00:21. > :00:29.Channel 4 really worthy of extended coverage on national news? As the
:00:30. > :00:36.go-ahead is given off, we speak to the China editor about the
:00:37. > :00:41.challenges of her job. One story this week was headlined on
:00:42. > :00:45.BBC One bulletins on Monday and Tuesday with breaking news alerts on
:00:46. > :00:49.the BBC News app and news channel but this is one reviewer put it to
:00:50. > :00:56.us was not so much breaking news as the King years. Just to bring you an
:00:57. > :01:01.update, the great British big of is moving to Channel 4 next year and we
:01:02. > :01:07.are just hearing that it has been confirmed that super guns and Mel
:01:08. > :01:18.will not be going to Channel 4. Sue and Mel will be stepping down as
:01:19. > :01:22.hosts of the programme. Scores of viewers felt the BBC lost its sense
:01:23. > :01:27.of proportion in its coverage. Some putting it down to a celebrity
:01:28. > :01:32.obsession. Two of them recorded their views for us. I would like to
:01:33. > :01:37.make a point about the big off and its domination of the news coverage
:01:38. > :01:43.on the BBC this week. I know it is a popular programme but surely it is
:01:44. > :01:49.not news of the fact it is moving channels? If it was moving to
:01:50. > :01:53.satellite, I could understand there may be a few people worried that at
:01:54. > :01:56.the end of the day, it is only three hops on the channel change and I
:01:57. > :02:09.don't see why that should be national news. The winner of the
:02:10. > :02:12.2015 rate British bacon off. I was watching the news bulletin on Monday
:02:13. > :02:16.when Fiona Bruce announced summer breaking news, anticipating a major
:02:17. > :02:21.event such as a terrorist attack or plane crash or possibly the death of
:02:22. > :02:25.a national leader, I was left speechless when the news turned out
:02:26. > :02:30.to be nothing more than the loss of a programme from the BBC to Channel
:02:31. > :02:36.4. You are to be ashamed of yourselves for giving such a trivial
:02:37. > :02:39.event so much publicity. In more weighty matter is the US
:02:40. > :02:43.presidential election and the main event in that campaign this week was
:02:44. > :02:48.the revelation that Hillary Clinton had been suffering from pneumonia
:02:49. > :02:51.and prodded by footage of her stumbling as she got into a car last
:02:52. > :02:56.Sunday. Did her illness and her failure to divulge it earlier won
:02:57. > :03:03.the attention it received? Not according to poll who wrote on
:03:04. > :03:24.Monday. All morning, the BBC will continue to make a full of itself.
:03:25. > :03:31.Thursday's announcement that the Hinkley point move your station will
:03:32. > :03:36.go ahead was a reminder of the increasing commercial importance of
:03:37. > :03:41.China in the UK, added to its growing significance, it is clear
:03:42. > :03:46.what prodded BBC News to appoint its first China editor in 2013. Since
:03:47. > :03:51.she took up the post she has ported on such stories as the President's
:03:52. > :03:54.state visit to the UK, the G20 meeting earlier this month and last
:03:55. > :04:00.Sunday, the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Two years ago, no one
:04:01. > :04:04.here was demanding independence. When they brought the heart of the
:04:05. > :04:09.city to a standstill, they were only asking to choose Hong Kong's
:04:10. > :04:14.leaders. Beijing refused to give ground and now they are demanding
:04:15. > :04:21.more, the right to decide whether Hong Kong should be part of China at
:04:22. > :04:28.all. The Michael the sad reveals growing mistrust between China and
:04:29. > :04:33.its guests. Its neighbours in Asia complain about not getting a level
:04:34. > :04:38.playing field in business and America increasingly sees China as a
:04:39. > :04:41.dangerous rival. The protesters were penned a find police barriers and
:04:42. > :04:49.deliberately drowned out by symbols and drums. A leader who likes to see
:04:50. > :04:56.himself as a mild of the people was off to the Palace. A golden carriage
:04:57. > :05:01.for the golden mirror in relations that both governments now want to
:05:02. > :05:07.embark on. Official censorship of the media is ingrained in China. The
:05:08. > :05:10.Internet is heavily restricted and BBC News broadcasts have been
:05:11. > :05:15.blacked out on occasion while treading on sensitive areas.
:05:16. > :05:27.Journalists face obstruction, repression and worse. Not an easy
:05:28. > :05:34.place to report from then and the woman with the task of doing so is
:05:35. > :05:38.with me now. China is so prominent in UK News, partly through things
:05:39. > :05:42.like Hinkley Point C but it does not feel I can we understand the country
:05:43. > :05:47.as much as one would expect., choose your job about explaining time to
:05:48. > :05:54.British audiences? It is about that. Our cultures are so different, it is
:05:55. > :05:57.5,000 miles away, is enormous and complex so a lot of the stories we
:05:58. > :06:01.hear about China are about explaining but I have to say, I find
:06:02. > :06:07.them difficult to understand slice of those with the audience China is
:06:08. > :06:11.so very complex. In terms of understanding, winds a story about
:06:12. > :06:16.reports such as the Queen making comments about rude officials, is
:06:17. > :06:19.there something we don't understand about how that is viewed in China
:06:20. > :06:25.and how it matters because we saw it as the Chinese blocking out our
:06:26. > :06:30.reporting putt anything that doesn't fit the template of how the Chinese
:06:31. > :06:37.state wants to report any event or any piece of news, they will blacked
:06:38. > :06:41.out on our screens, on CNN, they will blacked out the print media
:06:42. > :06:48.coverage. That is a problem which has grown worse in China, rather
:06:49. > :06:54.than better. Under the President, the tendency of the state to behave
:06:55. > :06:57.in an increasingly autocratic and controlling way about information is
:06:58. > :07:02.very noticeable and that makes the job of reporters even harder but
:07:03. > :07:06.something like that, those comments about the rudeness of Chinese
:07:07. > :07:11.officials, I can understand what would have happened there. Every
:07:12. > :07:17.official at every level who was trying to organise the smooth visit
:07:18. > :07:20.and trying to cover that visit, I came across that, they are very
:07:21. > :07:24.tense. Their jobs are dependent on that going well so they are very
:07:25. > :07:28.anxious as individuals that everything should go according to
:07:29. > :07:34.plan. Restrictions have a chilly got worse over the last few years, what
:07:35. > :07:40.sort have restrictions have you faced and how do you deal with that
:07:41. > :07:45.when you are reporting? We face a range of restrictions. For example,
:07:46. > :07:53.quite strict constraints on 1's actions -- access to the country. If
:07:54. > :07:58.you are a reporter, you have to have a Visa so that is one way of control
:07:59. > :08:03.but at every level, there is intense control of what we do and there is
:08:04. > :08:07.intense surveillance of what we do so that is just something that as a
:08:08. > :08:12.reporter in China, you know goes with the territory. Has it affected
:08:13. > :08:16.what you have put into a report because you are treading of whether
:08:17. > :08:19.it is worth offending the Chinese or more important to put that
:08:20. > :08:22.information out there? Never because at the end of the day, it is very
:08:23. > :08:27.important to stand your ground and do the job that you are there to do
:08:28. > :08:36.so for me, even though sometimes you are faced with a situation where you
:08:37. > :08:40.may be threatened or someone will be displeased by this might have
:08:41. > :08:46.consequences for you or for the BBC, you just have to see to the person
:08:47. > :08:52.who is making that threat, well, I must do my job and I will do it the
:08:53. > :08:59.way I see fit. Campaigners say the situation in China is getting much
:09:00. > :09:04.worse. Forced public confessions of journalists on TV, does it affect
:09:05. > :09:08.the way you can operate? It does. One of the more nuanced ways in
:09:09. > :09:13.which it affect the way we operate, it affects our relationship with
:09:14. > :09:17.Chinese journalists and it affects our relationships with Chinese
:09:18. > :09:27.individuals. It is very, very hard for Chinese individuals now to feel
:09:28. > :09:32.safe appearing on BBC TV for online or in any other western media. The
:09:33. > :09:39.fear of Chinese individuals, are they going to be presented as
:09:40. > :09:44.somehow colluding with foreign hostile forces if they appear or if
:09:45. > :09:48.they talk in any way to the Western media, especially for Chinese
:09:49. > :09:52.journalists. That has become a significant danger. Do you think
:09:53. > :09:57.that you should be reminding viewers more in the course of your
:09:58. > :10:01.day-to-day reporting about the scale of censorship? It is very difficult
:10:02. > :10:04.because we do need to do that and there's a certain amount of that but
:10:05. > :10:11.we do in our coverage but at the end of the story of an enormous,
:10:12. > :10:15.complicated, turbulence the transformative China is a much
:10:16. > :10:19.bigger story than the one of how it deals with Western media so there is
:10:20. > :10:23.always the balance to be made between sometimes we will do the
:10:24. > :10:27.story about how our lives were made hard and it was made almost
:10:28. > :10:34.impossible in some cases for us to get to the story. Example we can
:10:35. > :10:38.never go to Tibet and we constantly ask and we do not get given. We do
:10:39. > :10:45.have to say, our ability to report is heavily constrained but at the
:10:46. > :10:51.same time, we also have to say that the Chinese state and the Communist
:10:52. > :10:55.Party or the thin crust on a mighty Chinese civilisation with all the
:10:56. > :11:01.21st-century turmoil that the rest of the world is going through and
:11:02. > :11:04.then some. Finally, back to the great British
:11:05. > :11:08.baked off and its connection to the decision to go ahead with the
:11:09. > :11:12.Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, but connection you might ask but someone
:11:13. > :11:18.at the BBC has conceded that the new power station would produce another
:11:19. > :11:21.lecture city to a 58,181,818 people to watch the programme. Gary spotted
:11:22. > :11:45.that and e-mails. Thank you for all your comments this
:11:46. > :11:49.week. If you want to share your opinions on BBC News and current
:11:50. > :12:06.affairs or even appear on the programme, you can call us.
:12:07. > :12:10.That's all from us. We will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC
:12:11. > :12:17.coverage again next week.