24/02/2017

Download Subtitles

Transcript

:00:00. > :00:00.Fillon, and he's family receiving payments. He denies it. Tempi, Rita

:00:00. > :00:07.chakra Barty is here with a full round-up of the day 's news, first

:00:08. > :00:16.it is on his watch. And there and welcome to news watch

:00:17. > :00:20.with me Samira Ahmed. On this programme, is BBC News doing deals

:00:21. > :00:24.with celebrities? She gets to talk about their new film, they get to

:00:25. > :00:31.ask about the divorce. It was a very difficult time, and, we are a

:00:32. > :00:40.family. And we will always be a family. But first has stormed Doris

:00:41. > :00:44.battered many parts of the UK on Thursday, it could only mean one

:00:45. > :00:51.thing for BBC news reporters, you know what is coming next. Here's

:00:52. > :00:55.Alison Freeman. We saw you earlier almost unable to stand up, it

:00:56. > :00:59.doesn't look much better now? It isn't Rita, we have just watched

:01:00. > :01:03.this storm unfold throughout the morning, as the wind has become more

:01:04. > :01:08.and more powerful. It is so strong at the moment I can't look into it,

:01:09. > :01:13.and the foam that has been blown from the seat is a bit more like

:01:14. > :01:19.being in a blizzard. But was that piece of broadcasting and location

:01:20. > :01:23.necessary, why is also? Carol J left us this message. I'm sure that the

:01:24. > :01:30.BBC will say that we do not put our reporters in danger and that she is

:01:31. > :01:35.OK. Not everyone however, may be as responsible, I use that term likely,

:01:36. > :01:39.as the BBC. They may think, let us go and stand on Blackpool and they

:01:40. > :01:44.get blown over and hurt even worse cirrus to hurt or killed and will

:01:45. > :01:48.the BBC take responsibility? There is no need to have that woman

:01:49. > :01:55.standing in that position, encouraging others to think it is OK

:01:56. > :02:00.because it isn't. Newspeak is radio one's News service targeting 16 to

:02:01. > :02:03.29-year-olds, story is true on ordinary members of the public doing

:02:04. > :02:08.something on social media that quickly get picked up and printed

:02:09. > :02:12.widely. This week it is a story about a 20-year-old American student

:02:13. > :02:16.called Nick who graded and critiqued a break-up letter from a ex-friend

:02:17. > :02:22.he posted it on social media where it went viral. Newspeak republished

:02:23. > :02:27.his tweet showing the letter. A number of people complained about

:02:28. > :02:32.the invasion of a young woman's Prevacid, including somebody who

:02:33. > :02:35.said it was aiding the online harassment. And the BBC had

:02:36. > :02:43.published it purely for entertainment.

:02:44. > :02:53.Well we asked Newspeak for a response and this is what they told

:02:54. > :03:18.us: -- Newsbeat. Now on Sunday night the News at ten

:03:19. > :03:23.reported as one of its headline stories on a new film about

:03:24. > :03:27.Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime in 1970s which is being released later

:03:28. > :03:30.this year on Netflix. It might not sound like obvious mainstream news

:03:31. > :03:36.material but its inclusion in the bulletin may have sung to do with

:03:37. > :03:41.the identity of its direct, Jolie. What happened to its people was not

:03:42. > :03:45.properly understood. And not just for the world but for the people of

:03:46. > :03:54.the country, I felt that I wanted them to be able to reflect on its.

:03:55. > :03:58.Angelina Jolie is keen to tell the story and focus on this country and

:03:59. > :04:02.its past but it has been difficult to keep the spotlight off her own

:04:03. > :04:05.personal life. Wii nine incident occurred the undead to your

:04:06. > :04:09.separation, also know that you haven't said anything about this. --

:04:10. > :04:20.we know that an incident occurred about your separation. Only that, I

:04:21. > :04:30.don't want to say very much about that. Except to say it was a very

:04:31. > :04:34.difficult time, and we are a family. That interview also ran the

:04:35. > :04:38.following day on breakfast and a news channel featured on the news

:04:39. > :04:42.website, and as part of a documentary shown on BBC world News.

:04:43. > :04:46.The driving force behind it was Julie Angus, the deputy director of

:04:47. > :04:53.the BBC World Service. He joins us now. First, can you tell us how did

:04:54. > :04:58.you get that Angelina Jolie interview? Yes of course, we decided

:04:59. > :05:01.that it would be editorially interesting and important to take

:05:02. > :05:05.the advantage of being able to go to Cambodia and make a feature about

:05:06. > :05:08.the film. And it is good that you explained that this is part of a

:05:09. > :05:11.longer documentary, one of the important things to bear in mind

:05:12. > :05:15.about this piece is that we are going to be producing a 23 minute

:05:16. > :05:21.documentary which will run on the BBC world News Channel and on a news

:05:22. > :05:24.channel here in the UK and indeed a radio documentary. So what we did

:05:25. > :05:29.was gather quite a lot of material and we cut down some of it,

:05:30. > :05:34.broadcast ahead of time. So that, the audiences who watch those main

:05:35. > :05:39.bulletins on BBC One, would see the news piece. Just to be clear,

:05:40. > :05:44.getting that interview with Angelina Jolie, were their deals or

:05:45. > :05:48.conditions? Their word, we had done some work with her last year, I

:05:49. > :05:51.think she trusts the BBC to deal with the material in the film

:05:52. > :05:55.sensitively and proportionately. We were able to agree with her that we

:05:56. > :06:00.would go and get some access to the film and its premiere which we felt

:06:01. > :06:03.would be of value to the audiences and would be of interest to the

:06:04. > :06:06.audiences and what we have seen from the statistics and the viewing

:06:07. > :06:13.figures and the online figures have confirmed that. What did you object

:06:14. > :06:18.to about this item? Mainly because it is not news. It is as simple as

:06:19. > :06:23.that. This actually was a shameless piece of Hollywood PR. It consisted

:06:24. > :06:29.of puff about the film, it was a long film of Pol Pot which is 40 or

:06:30. > :06:33.50 years old, and then the most ludicrous so-called exclusive

:06:34. > :06:36.interview, which reminded me of a levitation seen from absolutely

:06:37. > :06:43.fabulous in which he said absolutely nothing. But this was trailed across

:06:44. > :06:47.the BBC, endlessly. It was headlined, it was the second or

:06:48. > :06:52.third most important in the world according to the running order of

:06:53. > :06:57.the BBC News. Frankly you could hardly have made more fuss if it was

:06:58. > :07:01.the second coming. A lot of people would say that it would not have

:07:02. > :07:07.been done without her celebrity at all? I think her involvement in the

:07:08. > :07:10.film is certainly passed of the news story. Certainly the ones have been

:07:11. > :07:14.made about the genocide but one of the important things about this film

:07:15. > :07:20.is that her involvement meant, that a major international personality

:07:21. > :07:23.was investing the time and the effort to make a Cambodian language

:07:24. > :07:26.film with Cambodian actors, and for the first time the whole machinery

:07:27. > :07:30.of the Cambodian government including the king who attended the

:07:31. > :07:33.premiere was very publicly being associated with it and we felt

:07:34. > :07:37.because we don't get to go to Cambodia very often, that actually

:07:38. > :07:39.that told us something editorially interesting about how other

:07:40. > :07:47.countries coming to terms with what has happened in the past. Of course

:07:48. > :07:50.her presence was part of the story. But the BBC always makes a material

:07:51. > :07:57.across the wide range of subject areas. I think what people ought to

:07:58. > :08:01.see is authoritative and well-informed views. Angelina Jolie

:08:02. > :08:04.may well be that, but we can all see from America, the problem with

:08:05. > :08:10.pandering the way that you did with some of the most it's equally as

:08:11. > :08:12.questioning I have seen since the 1950s, to celebrities. And celebrity

:08:13. > :08:18.views are worth no more than yours or mine frankly. What did you make

:08:19. > :08:22.of the fact that the headline of the story was about the marriage

:08:23. > :08:27.breakdown? She did and said anything about it, did she? By the way, that

:08:28. > :08:31.is none of our business. We do know and only a fool would think

:08:32. > :08:35.otherwise, that as and when she makes her announcement about that,

:08:36. > :08:38.it will be done through the Hollywood PR machine and anyone who

:08:39. > :08:45.thinks she's going to answer a question on the BBC, about that is a

:08:46. > :08:49.fool. People watching, say that if this was about the film crews and

:08:50. > :08:53.the Khmer Rouge, why was the headline on News at ten about her

:08:54. > :08:56.marriage? If you look at how we presented the material right across

:08:57. > :09:00.the BBC will see clearly that we presented the story in the context

:09:01. > :09:04.of the film. But in terms of the News at ten what people were

:09:05. > :09:09.watching West up but if you look at the package, you have got a 3.5

:09:10. > :09:12.minute piece, of which the 45 seconds is what happened in her

:09:13. > :09:16.family. We understand that people have a broad range of interest about

:09:17. > :09:19.this story and ways of getting into this story and we think we have

:09:20. > :09:23.presented this material responsibly and I'm very sorry that might is not

:09:24. > :09:26.happy with it, I would hamper I would encourage him to watch the

:09:27. > :09:32.long for material, that we produced as part of this trip because when

:09:33. > :09:34.you have seen that, it is part of a fairer basis of judging the

:09:35. > :09:38.totality. You are emphasising that, the BBC sold the whole exclusive on

:09:39. > :09:42.the fact that you have got this celebrity angle, Angelina Jolie and

:09:43. > :09:46.her marriage break-up and the comment on it however little that

:09:47. > :09:50.was. That's what seems very odd to viewers like Mike. I don't think

:09:51. > :09:53.that is fair, if you look right across the BBC News website, and the

:09:54. > :09:58.two national channels and throughout its coverage, I think that we have

:09:59. > :10:02.been very clear about headlining the film, the issues about Cambodia and

:10:03. > :10:07.the unusual access. The unusual parts of the Cambodian story. I

:10:08. > :10:10.think we have handled it responsibly but we are not going to cover up the

:10:11. > :10:13.fact that there was some interest for the public in what she had to

:10:14. > :10:18.say about this enormous international news stories. Are you

:10:19. > :10:23.satisfied with what you have heard? No, and the fact of the matter is

:10:24. > :10:27.that people don't have the time and inclination, the fact of the matter

:10:28. > :10:30.was that it was headlined across the BBC as an exclusive interview about

:10:31. > :10:35.her marriage breakdown. As if anybody was interested in that,

:10:36. > :10:41.people are clearly, but she said absolutely nothing about it, and

:10:42. > :10:49.frankly I thought it was a fiasco. We will have to leave it there,

:10:50. > :10:51.thank you very much. Finally Steve Hewlett died on Monday was an

:10:52. > :10:56.occasional presenter and very welcome guest on this programme. He

:10:57. > :11:00.had a long and varied programme with production and executive roles, on

:11:01. > :11:04.the BBC and Channel 4 and ITV, he was editor of panorama at the time

:11:05. > :11:08.of its famous interview with Princess Diana in 1995 and he became

:11:09. > :11:12.a sought-after media commentator both on camera and in print and he

:11:13. > :11:17.presented Radio 4's media show from its launch in 2008. Over the past

:11:18. > :11:21.few months he described the experience of having cancer in a

:11:22. > :11:26.moving series of radio interviews. Steve will be much missed by family,

:11:27. > :11:34.friends and colleagues and by news watch viewers such as Paul Nelson

:11:35. > :11:38.who wrote to us on Monday. "So Sad, to hear of his passing. I shall

:11:39. > :11:44.never forget his candid interviews. "

:11:45. > :11:50.Thank you for all of your comments this week. If you want to share your

:11:51. > :12:05.opinions on BBC News current affairs, you can call us. All e-mail

:12:06. > :12:07.news watch. To have a look at our website. -- do have a look.