:00:11. > :00:18.Hello. Welcome to Newswatch. Coming up on this programme. The Prime
:00:19. > :00:23.Minister reveals more of the Government's plans for leaving the
:00:24. > :00:26.European Union. But is the BBC obsessed with the potential
:00:27. > :00:31.downsides of Brexit? And the BBC Trust says a report about Jeremy
:00:32. > :00:34.Corbyn's policies on shoot to kill was inaccurate but the corporation's
:00:35. > :00:46.director of news rejects the finding. What's going on?
:00:47. > :00:49.In the build-up to it Donald Trump's inauguration the BBC broadcast a
:00:50. > :00:52.number of reports about the 45th President of the United States.
:00:53. > :00:57.Monday's panorama, for example, asked whether he was the Kremlin's
:00:58. > :01:04.candidate for the job? The reporter has a habit of testy on air
:01:05. > :01:09.encounters as demonstrated in this programme and in a clip from a 2013
:01:10. > :01:12.interview with Donald Trump. Maybe you are thick, but when you
:01:13. > :01:16.have a signed contract you can't in this country just break it. By the
:01:17. > :01:19.way, John, I hate to do this but I have a big group of people
:01:20. > :01:26.waiting... One last question, please, sir. I have to leave, thank
:01:27. > :01:31.you. Hold on a second, please, tell me about the man murdered 100
:01:32. > :01:36.yards... You think he was... He was critical of Putin. Can you list the
:01:37. > :01:40.number of American journalists who have died under Obama? It is
:01:41. > :01:46.completely stupid kind of conversation. OK. Very good. I am
:01:47. > :01:52.very nice to meet you. But I don't like to continue.
:01:53. > :02:27.Ian was watching that and thought: On Monday, this was the third
:02:28. > :02:30.headline on BBC's News at Six. Also on tonight's programme, crisis in
:02:31. > :02:34.Stormont. Today Sinn Fein will not renominate for the position of
:02:35. > :02:38.deputy firs Minister. New elections in Northern Ireland as
:02:39. > :02:43.power sharing collapses. Some viewers felt that such dramatic
:02:44. > :02:45.and significant political news from Northern Ireland merited more
:02:46. > :02:50.attention from the BBC which didn't lead with that story on any of its
:02:51. > :03:05.main bulletins. As Kevin put it on Twitter:
:03:06. > :03:11.Since last June's close and hotly debated referendum, the arguments
:03:12. > :03:15.about how Britain will leave the European Union have raged on. This
:03:16. > :03:17.week gave us some clarity on the issue with the Prime Minister's
:03:18. > :03:23.speech on Tuesday but it certainly didn't mark an end to the arguments
:03:24. > :03:27.about how easy or successful the process might prove to be.
:03:28. > :03:33.Parliament will have a vote on the final deal but already the criticism
:03:34. > :03:39.has started. If all her optimism of a deal with the European Union
:03:40. > :03:43.didn't work, we would move into a low tax, corporate taxation bargain
:03:44. > :03:47.basement economy. I am not prepared for Scotland to be taken down a path
:03:48. > :03:52.that I firmly believe is going to be damaging. Businesses are very
:03:53. > :03:55.worried that getting that deal in principle within two years is
:03:56. > :03:59.unrealistic and that what we might do is then fall off a cliff into
:04:00. > :04:03.this regulatory and trade no-man's-land and people have warned
:04:04. > :04:08.that would be very damaging. This is one day, 24 hours in what's going to
:04:09. > :04:11.be a long, complicated, fraught and difficult process. There are people
:04:12. > :04:16.here in Westminster still and more importantly perhaps on the other
:04:17. > :04:21.side of the negotiating table, those 27 countries who believe what she's
:04:22. > :04:25.asking for is a delusion. Several viewers got in touch to
:04:26. > :04:27.complain of what they saw as a lack of balance in the coverage.
:04:28. > :04:56.Elizabeth asked: And other viewers echoed that, such
:04:57. > :05:24.as Arthur Smith who e-mailed: Let's talk about this to Katie Sell,
:05:25. > :05:27.the editor of BBC political news who joins us from our Westminster
:05:28. > :05:32.studio. Let's start with the complaints about who is getting air
:05:33. > :05:35.time. Many viewers are saying too many voices giving initial reaction
:05:36. > :05:39.to May's speech are hostile to Brexit and essentially the BBC is
:05:40. > :05:42.rehashing the debate that we had in the referendum? I think the job as
:05:43. > :05:48.journalists and it's true whether it's at the BBC or across other
:05:49. > :05:56.media or indeed the newspapers, is to question and ask for answers that
:05:57. > :06:01.we don't have. The country voted for Brexit but it is really left many
:06:02. > :06:06.questions unanswered. Actually, on Tuesday when the Prime Minister gave
:06:07. > :06:11.her speech we gave a great deal of coverage to the speech itself which
:06:12. > :06:14.set out the arguments and the plans for Brexit from the Government. But
:06:15. > :06:19.it did leave many, many questions unanswered. You heard there from
:06:20. > :06:22.Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon with their own questions, so we are
:06:23. > :06:26.not just asking the questions just from the BBC's point of view,
:06:27. > :06:30.although we would do that as journalists, we are putting the
:06:31. > :06:32.concerns of the other main politicians in this country to try
:06:33. > :06:36.to get some answers and the answers that we don't have.
:06:37. > :06:41.Part of that concern is about the language used by reporters, a lot of
:06:42. > :06:45.people are very concerned. Is there too much hypothetical worry, rather
:06:46. > :06:50.than straight reporting what the Prime Minister said? We did a piece
:06:51. > :06:54.that ran at about five-and-a-half minutes for the main Six and Ten
:06:55. > :07:00.news programmes that night and that's a very long piece for news at
:07:01. > :07:05.that point. We did that specifically because we wanted to give people,
:07:06. > :07:10.the audience, a chance to hear the Prime Minister's case on what was a
:07:11. > :07:15.defining speech from the Government. So, I think we did give air time to
:07:16. > :07:18.that. As I say, this is then the opportunity to say hang on, we are
:07:19. > :07:22.trying to do the job for the audience which is to raise questions
:07:23. > :07:25.they may have in their mind and answer questions they may think,
:07:26. > :07:31.well, she didn't really explain that. What does that mean? And why
:07:32. > :07:36.would we do that? So it's very much our job as journalists to try and do
:07:37. > :07:42.that for the audience. That's part of what we are for, is to try and
:07:43. > :07:45.get to the answers and try and give some clarity where there is perhaps
:07:46. > :07:49.none coming from the Government. It sounds from some of the viewers'
:07:50. > :07:52.complaints we are getting that the BBC might say we are dealing with
:07:53. > :07:55.where there is concerns and questions and in a sense you are
:07:56. > :08:00.looking for the drama, but perhaps the BBC needs to rethink the tone in
:08:01. > :08:05.which it covers these things and the assumptions made? Certainly, I would
:08:06. > :08:10.agree that the tone is absolutely vital and that's true of any story
:08:11. > :08:14.that we cover. We think carefully about this. We try and - we look at
:08:15. > :08:20.our scripts over again, we think about the words we use. I would be
:08:21. > :08:26.very careful if we were adopting a tone that was reflected one side or
:08:27. > :08:30.the other. The BBC continues to be committed to impartiality and that's
:08:31. > :08:35.true of the Brexit debate as it is on any other subject. Is it as
:08:36. > :08:40.simple as the BBC more often needs a caveat, more that we just don't
:08:41. > :08:45.know, or what a lot of this is going to mean? That's absolutely true, and
:08:46. > :08:48.we do that, one of the things we have set up in the last couple of
:08:49. > :08:53.years is the BBC's Reality Check, which is there to try and get to the
:08:54. > :08:59.bottom of those unanswered questions and try and provide the audience
:09:00. > :09:04.with some clarity and some facts and figures. Actually, very often the
:09:05. > :09:07.answer will come, well there is this evidence and that evidence, but in
:09:08. > :09:10.truth we don't really know the outcome. Do you think there might be
:09:11. > :09:16.more good news about Brexit out there that could be reported? I
:09:17. > :09:21.think we should absolutely do that. We will try and make every effort as
:09:22. > :09:26.the negotiations go on to ask the question is that a good thing, is
:09:27. > :09:30.that a bad thing? Again it's part of our job to present every side of
:09:31. > :09:33.that. I would agree that we will be looking for that opportunity as much
:09:34. > :09:34.as highlighting any concerns or problems with it.
:09:35. > :09:50.Thank you very much. Finally Complaints can go through a
:09:51. > :09:55.more formal procedure ending up with a finding by the BBC Trust and
:09:56. > :10:00.that's what happened after this was broadcast in November 2015 following
:10:01. > :10:04.the terror attacks in Paris. Today I asked the Labour leader,
:10:05. > :10:08.Jeremy Corbyn, if he were the resident here at Number 10 whether
:10:09. > :10:13.or not he would be happy for British officers to pull the trigger in the
:10:14. > :10:20.event of a Paris-style attack? I am not happy with the shoot to kill
:10:21. > :10:23.policy in general. I think that is quite dangerous and I think often
:10:24. > :10:26.can be counterproductive, you have to have security that prevents
:10:27. > :10:30.people firing off weapons where you can. There are various degrees of
:10:31. > :10:34.doing things as we know but the idea you end up with a war on the streets
:10:35. > :10:39.is not a good thing. But Jeremy Corbyn had in fact been responding
:10:40. > :10:43.to a question there about whether he would be happy to order police or
:10:44. > :10:46.military to shoot to kill on Britain's streets and not
:10:47. > :10:51.specifically regarding a Paris-style attack in the UK. The BBC Trust this
:10:52. > :10:56.week found that the report inaccurately represented the Labour
:10:57. > :11:00.leader's views, breaching the BBC's impartiality and accuracy
:11:01. > :11:02.guidelines. But BBC News has rejected that, saying MrCorbyn's
:11:03. > :11:07.remarks were not taken out of context, that he fully understood
:11:08. > :11:12.the nature of the questions asked and were reported accurately and
:11:13. > :11:16.impartially. John Blair objected to what he saw as insufficient coverage
:11:17. > :11:35.of the finding on the BBC itself, writing:
:11:36. > :11:49.And Hugh had this response: Thank you for all your comments this
:11:50. > :11:53.week. You too can share your opinions on BBC news, current
:11:54. > :11:59.affairs and TV online or even appear on the programme. You can call us:
:12:00. > :12:03.Or e-mail. You can find us on Twitter.
:12:04. > :12:09.Do have a look at previous discussions on our website.
:12:10. > :12:12.That's all from us. We will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News
:12:13. > :12:17.coverage again next week. Goodbye.