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