:00:00. > :00:08.Now it's time for Newswatch, with Samira Ahmed.
:00:09. > :00:11.Hello, and welcome to Newswatch with me, Samira Ahmed.
:00:12. > :00:13.BBC reports revealed the scale of the famine in
:00:14. > :00:24.Is this more charity campaigning than news?
:00:25. > :00:27.And can you have too much of a fun viral moment
:00:28. > :00:34.First, how significant is it in news terms
:00:35. > :00:39.when politicians listen to criticism and rethink controversial decisions?
:00:40. > :00:42.On Wednesday the Prime Minister announced the scrapping of the plans
:00:43. > :00:44.announced in the budget to raise national insurance payments for
:00:45. > :00:52.Norman Smith described this U-turn to Sophie Raworth like this...
:00:53. > :00:54.Sophie, let's just get this in perspective of grand government
:00:55. > :00:57.howling, screeching, Italian Riviera, hairpin bend, smoke
:00:58. > :01:04.bleeding from the tyres sort of U-turn.
:01:05. > :01:07.In terms of the speed, just seven days ago Philip Hammond
:01:08. > :01:12.announced this tax rise, and the scale of it, it is a complete
:01:13. > :01:20.Not a tweak, not a nudge, not a review
:01:21. > :01:26.Some of you thought there was too much relish
:01:27. > :01:28.and shock over a simple change of mind, including
:01:29. > :01:30.Politicians get all excited about policy U-turn
:01:31. > :01:50.is because they love finding fault with each other.
:01:51. > :01:54.Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland,
:01:55. > :01:57.Monday when she said there should be another referendum on Scottish
:01:58. > :02:04.A demand rebuffed by the Prime Minister on Thursday.
:02:05. > :02:08.This is a highly contentious issue, as was
:02:09. > :02:11.seen in the criticism made of the BBC over its coverage
:02:12. > :02:14.It exercised several viewers again this week with
:02:15. > :02:16.Andrew Harrison asking, why are the BBC spending so much
:02:17. > :02:18.time discussing the SNP and their political agenda
:02:19. > :02:30.This should not be driving the news of the 60 million other UK
:02:31. > :02:39.I can only hope the BBC does not revert to type, given
:02:40. > :02:41.its role in the 2014 Scottish referendum,
:02:42. > :02:43.and become a propaganda machine for the Nationalist British
:02:44. > :02:49.As that debate continues, the BBC's reporting will clearly be
:02:50. > :02:51.under scrutiny again, including an Newswatch.
:02:52. > :02:53.Now, our domestic political concerns have been put
:02:54. > :02:56.into perspective this week by a series of reports running on BBC
:02:57. > :03:03.television about the famine recently declared in South Sudan.
:03:04. > :03:05.The first declared anywhere in the world in
:03:06. > :03:08.The millions of people facing starvation in Somalia, Kenya
:03:09. > :03:13.It's not that there is no food in South Sudan, it's just that
:03:14. > :03:17.Because of the constant fighting, people can't
:03:18. > :03:21.And if the fighting continues, more and
:03:22. > :03:24.more people will be forced to abandon their homes and become
:03:25. > :03:39.Many are already dying before they can
:03:40. > :03:42.With 3 million people on the verge of starvation here, the
:03:43. > :03:45.But what about those children who don't make it
:03:46. > :03:55.Where there are no doctors or clinics, where food and water has
:03:56. > :03:58.been looted by retreating Boko Haram fighters.
:03:59. > :04:01.For those children, the end is inevitable.
:04:02. > :04:05.Innocent victims of a man major tragedy.
:04:06. > :04:06.Clive Myrie there, reporting from Nigeria.
:04:07. > :04:09.Before him, Andrew Harding in Somalia.
:04:10. > :04:12.And Catherine Byaruhanga in South Sudan.
:04:13. > :04:15.Grace Dalton was one of those who welcomed the coverage, leaving
:04:16. > :04:17.us this telephone message on Wednesday.
:04:18. > :04:19.I really wanted to thank you so, so much.
:04:20. > :04:21.I was really pleased yesterday that you were
:04:22. > :04:24.covering quite substantially the famine situation in Africa.
:04:25. > :04:26.My only criticism about the BBC's coverage
:04:27. > :04:29.is that you didn't give out the DEC number, I thought you might give out
:04:30. > :04:33.contact for people to be able to donate towards the effort being made
:04:34. > :04:47.Later on Wednesday the BBC did broadcast an appeal from the
:04:48. > :04:51.With full details of how money could be donated.
:04:52. > :04:53.Nobody should be dying of starvation in 2017.
:04:54. > :04:56.For a malnourished child in this situation, ?5 could provide a week's
:04:57. > :05:13.?25 could provide a month's supply of life-saving peanut paste.
:05:14. > :05:15.?60 could provide clean drinking water for two families for a month.
:05:16. > :05:18.The Disasters Emergency Committee is an umbrella group of major charities
:05:19. > :05:20.which has won many television campaigns following, for instance,
:05:21. > :05:22.the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and Typhoon Haiyan
:05:23. > :05:23.in the Philippines in
:05:24. > :05:35.Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night
:05:36. > :05:42.TV has a long history of bringing humanitarian crisis to the attention
:05:43. > :05:44.of the wider public, most famously through
:05:45. > :05:45.Michael Burke's report on
:05:46. > :05:48.what he called the biblical famine in Ethiopic in 1994, which gave rise
:05:49. > :06:02.But some people are uncomfortable about
:06:03. > :06:05.the role and impartial and objective BBC can have here in kick-starting
:06:06. > :06:09.The news channel there is to deliver news.
:06:10. > :06:12.This is nothing more than an appeal for money.
:06:13. > :06:16.This does not belong on the main news channel as the head
:06:17. > :06:20.Returning to the Newswatch studio to discuss this is
:06:21. > :06:24.the editor of the BBC News at Six and News at Ten, Paul Royal.
:06:25. > :06:27.Can you explain first how the BBC came to declare
:06:28. > :06:31.All of these countries we've been covering and
:06:32. > :06:32.reporting from over the past 3-6 months.
:06:33. > :06:35.We ran a couple of pieces from north-east Nigeria in December.
:06:36. > :06:52.We've reported from South Sudan through January.
:06:53. > :06:56.We've been covering them and the situation there has been
:06:57. > :07:00.What happened about a week ago was a warning from the United
:07:01. > :07:03.Nations, a very stark warning that 21 million people are at risk of
:07:04. > :07:06.And on the basis of that, we felt that was
:07:07. > :07:09.something, the gravity of the situation, the magnitude of the
:07:10. > :07:10.story, that was something we needed to cover.
:07:11. > :07:12.With those reports viewers commented they noticed reporters
:07:13. > :07:16.Even if it's a worthy charitable cause,
:07:17. > :07:19.questioning whether BBC News reporters were using the jargon of a
:07:20. > :07:31.I would argue against that in the sense that what
:07:32. > :07:34.our correspondents were doing is what they always do, which is report
:07:35. > :07:37.with authority and context what is going on in a difficult and
:07:38. > :07:42.And actually say in the case of Andrew
:07:43. > :07:44.Harding, who reported famine in Somalia in 2011, he brought back
:07:45. > :07:46.into his reporting this week to contrast
:07:47. > :07:47.the differences between the
:07:48. > :07:49.situation then and now, and to point out that
:07:50. > :07:50.today the situation is
:07:51. > :07:57.probably less grave than it was in 2011.
:07:58. > :08:00.And the country and aid agencies and international community
:08:01. > :08:03.had learned lessons and were making their appeals and their warnings
:08:04. > :08:08.earlier to try and stop people from dying.
:08:09. > :08:14.Looking at some of those news reports one wonders where the line
:08:15. > :08:16.is, the limit is, on what reporters can say,
:08:17. > :08:21.DEC appeal saying we urgently need you and want you to donate money.
:08:22. > :08:22.Where is the boundary for the reporter?
:08:23. > :08:24.I think the reporters, our correspondents,
:08:25. > :08:26.These are difficult, dangerous, distressing
:08:27. > :08:30.They describe and they report them as they always do with
:08:31. > :08:32.all the context and background attached to that.
:08:33. > :08:33.So I don't think our correspondence and reporters
:08:34. > :08:35.have got emergency appeals in their minds,
:08:36. > :08:36.in their thoughts, as they
:08:37. > :08:44.BBC News reports can have a huge impact and a
:08:45. > :08:47.campaign for fundraising appeal will have a huge impact on the BBC.
:08:48. > :08:54.Perhaps there is a case to say why not give more attention of this
:08:55. > :08:56.campaigning kind to other crises maybe closer to home?
:08:57. > :09:00.What we've done this week is not campaigning
:09:01. > :09:01.journalism, that is a
:09:02. > :09:03.Campaigning journalism, which some newspapers
:09:04. > :09:05.will do, and have a long and proud tradition
:09:06. > :09:06.of, is trying to get a
:09:07. > :09:13.We've been doing this week what BBC News always
:09:14. > :09:14.does, which is report significantly important
:09:15. > :09:15.stories from around the
:09:16. > :09:19.In terms of why this, why not something else, I would argue we
:09:20. > :09:22.cover a whole range of serious and important situations at home and
:09:23. > :09:29.I suppose in this situation 21 million people are at
:09:30. > :09:34.risk of starvation, starving to death.
:09:35. > :09:38.The gravity and magnitude of the situation is such that that is
:09:39. > :09:40.what warrants and justifies an appeal,
:09:41. > :09:41.because it is so grave and
:09:42. > :09:52.Perhaps the most widely seen BBC interview of the week was one
:09:53. > :09:55.originally given to BBC world news about the South Korean President's
:09:56. > :09:59.In case you've been hiding under a rock for the past
:10:00. > :10:02.seven days, here is Professor Robert Kelly and the rest of his family.
:10:03. > :10:05.And what will it mean for the wider region?
:10:06. > :10:11.I think one of your children has just walked in.
:10:12. > :10:13.Shifting sands in the region, do you think
:10:14. > :10:17.Erm, I would be surprised if they do.
:10:18. > :10:30.What is this going to mean for the region?
:10:31. > :10:42.Soon an online sensation, the interrupted interview featured
:10:43. > :10:45.in news bulletin headlines, there was a follow-up interview with
:10:46. > :10:48.Professor Kelly, even live coverage of a news conference he gave, mainly
:10:49. > :11:08.The point of the Internet is, if people are interested in this, they
:11:09. > :11:14.can look for themselves... Enough is enough. Plenty of online traffic on
:11:15. > :11:20.Thursday was BBC footage of Mount Etna erupting at a lava flow mixed
:11:21. > :11:25.with steam causing a huge explosion. Rebecca Morelle was filming on the
:11:26. > :11:29.volcano at the time and escaped with camerawoman Rachel Price, who kept
:11:30. > :11:33.filming this footage as she ran down the mountain. The crew suffered only
:11:34. > :11:35.minor injuries and many people commended their work and bravery,
:11:36. > :11:49.but Patricia Rosewell had a concern. Thank you for all your comments this
:11:50. > :11:53.week. If you see anything on BBC News and current affairs you
:11:54. > :12:00.particularly like or dislike, please explain why by calling us.
:12:01. > :12:09.You can find us on twitter. Do have a look at our website.
:12:10. > :12:13.That's all from us, we'll be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News
:12:14. > :12:25.coverage again next week. Goodbye. Good evening, the weekend is pretty
:12:26. > :12:29.much upon us. I think we've probably seen better weekends in the middle
:12:30. > :12:32.of March because it'll be quite a windy weekend. Some rain in the
:12:33. > :12:35.forecast as well. Looks like most of it will fall on the western side of
:12:36. > :12:36.the UK. Should be