:00:00. > :00:16.Hello and welcome. Two big issues on the programme this week. BBC news
:00:17. > :00:24.programmes decamp to Westminster near the site of Wednesday's attack,
:00:25. > :00:29.was this the scale and response that the attacker might have hoped for?
:00:30. > :00:33.Did coverage of Martin McGuinness's death focus too much on his role as
:00:34. > :00:42.a peacemaker and not enough on his IRA past? From early Wednesday
:00:43. > :00:46.afternoon millions have watched what unfolded in Westminster with a sense
:00:47. > :00:50.of shock and revulsion, and for some there was also concern about whether
:00:51. > :00:52.the huge media attention paid into the hands of those who would support
:00:53. > :01:02.this outrage. -- played. We are going to update you on an
:01:03. > :01:10.ongoing incident going on at the Palace of Westminster. We were
:01:11. > :01:13.treated to nothing more than an often repeated sequence of 3-4
:01:14. > :01:21.events that happened, interspersed with speculation, and then the event
:01:22. > :01:25.repeated and then more speculation. BBC, you can do better than this,
:01:26. > :01:28.repeating things over and over again, highlighting the terrorism,
:01:29. > :01:36.isn't that exactly what the terrorists want? I rather suspect it
:01:37. > :01:39.is. His views were echoed by many other viewers, and of course a
:01:40. > :01:42.degree of repetition and speculation is inevitable in the initial
:01:43. > :01:46.reporting of an event of this kind, but other viewers objected to the
:01:47. > :01:50.choice made by BBC News to broadcast extensively since the attack not
:01:51. > :01:54.from its usual studios, but from the streets of Westminster near the
:01:55. > :02:00.scene of the crime. The News at ten, on Wednesday, the Thursday News and
:02:01. > :02:05.Victoria Derbyshire that day and much of the Channel's out but also
:02:06. > :02:12.mounted outside broadcast, which some felt could have disrupted the
:02:13. > :02:16.police work and was also different to the carry on approach which was
:02:17. > :02:20.encouraged by the Prime Minister. Why did the anchor 's have to run
:02:21. > :02:27.the programme from an empty Street, Reading from a makeshift prompt? Why
:02:28. > :02:33.were their repeated visits to reporters outside hospitals? Who had
:02:34. > :02:37.nothing to report. All of this served to dramatise the situation
:02:38. > :02:45.adding nothing to the quality of the coverage. But giving maximum
:02:46. > :02:48.exposure for the terrorist. Apart from reporting facts and showing
:02:49. > :02:54.respect for victims, the day after an attack like this should be
:02:55. > :02:56.handled like any other day. If the programme had been run from the
:02:57. > :03:01.studio, with some time allocated to other news, the BBC would have shown
:03:02. > :03:07.that normality had not been disrupted by the incident. Instead
:03:08. > :03:12.you chose to show the terrorist, and what a big impact they can have. To
:03:13. > :03:17.discuss how BBC News has covered the attacks and joined by Gavin Allen,
:03:18. > :03:23.the BBC controller of news programmes. It was a terrible
:03:24. > :03:27.attack, and viewers are say, what was to be gained by all of these
:03:28. > :03:32.outside broadcasts, given there were no further developments. There were
:03:33. > :03:36.further developments on the morning after, for instance, and it remained
:03:37. > :03:40.a situation which was unfolding and there was a minutes silence about to
:03:41. > :03:43.happen and MPs were coming back for a special statement by the Prime
:03:44. > :03:49.Minister later that morning. It is partly about the nature of news, and
:03:50. > :03:53.to be at a location, where something has happened, you do get a better
:03:54. > :04:00.understanding as a journalist, rather than when you are sitting at
:04:01. > :04:03.a desk, and it conveys to the audience that this is a major event
:04:04. > :04:10.and this will have a huge impact on the UK. There is a concern about
:04:11. > :04:14.copycats. I don't think responsibly reporting what has happened is
:04:15. > :04:17.encouraging people to repeat it. We are very aware of the
:04:18. > :04:21.responsibilities we have but we are also aware that there are millions
:04:22. > :04:25.of people out there, who want to know what actually happened, not
:04:26. > :04:29.just what is being speculated on and what they think might have happened
:04:30. > :04:34.or the rumours. They come to the BBC to understand what is actually a
:04:35. > :04:39.curving and that is our job. Let's be realistic, this was a huge event
:04:40. > :04:44.and there is going to be publicity for the terrorists in this case,
:04:45. > :04:47.because everywhere, social media, every news organisation, is going to
:04:48. > :04:50.cover it, and the responsibility for the BBC is to make sure that the way
:04:51. > :04:55.we cover it and the precision with which we cover it is absolutely
:04:56. > :04:59.accurate so you get the information you need without overly
:05:00. > :05:02.sensationalising it. There were many images of the dead and dying and
:05:03. > :05:09.injured and many people thought this was intrusive. I would quibble with
:05:10. > :05:14.that. There were images across this week in the newsroom and in
:05:15. > :05:17.newspapers, and on-air, but we take great care to think what I'll be
:05:18. > :05:22.conveying with this image and there are images which we did not show --
:05:23. > :05:26.what are we conveying. In terms of conveying and try to understand for
:05:27. > :05:30.the audience's site what has happened and the severity of what
:05:31. > :05:36.has happened, but not to overflow into insensitivity and imaging on
:05:37. > :05:38.the dignity of the injured and the dying and sadly in the case of the
:05:39. > :05:44.dead, their family, that is important. PC Keith Palmer died and
:05:45. > :05:49.people will take that as an example of intrusive coverage. We were very
:05:50. > :05:52.careful not to show many of those images, but we tried to show the
:05:53. > :05:57.scene and a more general generic sense of people gathered around him
:05:58. > :06:03.trying to save him. Again it is the balance, this is an event which has
:06:04. > :06:08.happened. People said they saw the bodies of people who were severely
:06:09. > :06:13.injured or possibly dead. The fact they did not necessarily see their
:06:14. > :06:20.faces does not make it accept will. It makes a difference, and if you
:06:21. > :06:24.see a crowd of people around someone who was injured, that is different
:06:25. > :06:27.from seeing the person who is injured and the injury, and that is
:06:28. > :06:32.a big difference, but in fairness it is a precise line. You have got to
:06:33. > :06:34.make a judgment and that is why Devon broadcasters and different
:06:35. > :06:39.organisations have come to different judgments. -- different
:06:40. > :06:43.broadcasters. You did have a lot of repetition after the attack with not
:06:44. > :06:47.much in the way of facts and some viewers feel that this kind of
:06:48. > :06:51.coverage is adding to a sense of panic unnecessarily. I don't think
:06:52. > :06:55.it does, people come to the news channel to find out what is the
:06:56. > :06:59.latest news, how long they stay for it is up to them but it varies, but
:07:00. > :07:04.if you come in you want the news instantly, so there will be
:07:05. > :07:07.repetition, and at any minute there could be an update, and what we
:07:08. > :07:10.tried to do is to make sure that every bit of that information was
:07:11. > :07:14.conveyed clearly and accurately and not to speculate and I think we
:07:15. > :07:21.achieved that fairly well. Thank you. We will talk about the next
:07:22. > :07:26.issue. That was not the only big controversy, Martin the business, a
:07:27. > :07:29.former IRA leader who played a significant role in the Northern
:07:30. > :07:34.Ireland peace process, becoming Deputy First Minister after that --
:07:35. > :07:37.Martin McGuinness. But for many viewers the BBC focus too much on
:07:38. > :07:44.the latter part of his life and not enough on the former. We have this
:07:45. > :07:54.phone message. It is unbelievable what the BBC have done, with praise,
:07:55. > :07:58.praise, praise, for a butcher, an absolute butcher of a person. Other
:07:59. > :08:01.viewers objected to the scale and the tone of the coverage including
:08:02. > :08:34.Des Murphy who sent this e-mail. Gavin is still in the studio. The
:08:35. > :08:38.main charges at the BBC glossed over his serious past as a senior IRA
:08:39. > :08:42.commander and that was not acceptable if you were trying to be
:08:43. > :08:44.balanced. It would have been not acceptable if we had glossed over
:08:45. > :08:50.that part of his life, but we didn't. It was very clear in the
:08:51. > :08:54.interviews we did and the packages we ran that we were conveying
:08:55. > :08:59.someone who yes, in the second half of their life was a senior
:09:00. > :09:02.politician and a negotiator for the peace process, but in the early half
:09:03. > :09:07.was absolutely clearly involved with the IRA and was responsible directly
:09:08. > :09:12.or indirectly for a number of deaths and we could not have glossed over
:09:13. > :09:14.that. We had hundreds of complaints and they said it was not given
:09:15. > :09:22.enough attention, the terrorist past, and the interviews with Tony
:09:23. > :09:30.Blair and Bill Clinton were paying tribute to the peace process and
:09:31. > :09:35.complaints to -- and criticisms were further down the order. I can think
:09:36. > :09:40.of many examples when we had the voices of relatives of victims, and
:09:41. > :09:44.people such as Norman Tebbit, who were clear in their utter
:09:45. > :09:48.condemnation and loathing of someone they described as a cow would. And
:09:49. > :09:52.the world is a sweeter place, and we were clear there was an utter hatred
:09:53. > :09:55.of Martin McGuinness, but there was also a reverence for him by others
:09:56. > :10:00.and we had to make sure that this is a very complex person, hated on one
:10:01. > :10:09.side and laughed on another and we have got to convey that is who he
:10:10. > :10:12.was. The BBC can be accused of being too reverential when it comes to an
:10:13. > :10:18.obituary for fear of causing offence. That is a danger of all
:10:19. > :10:22.obituaries, not just the BBC, you tend to accentuate the positive when
:10:23. > :10:26.people have died, but we tried to be as balance as we could be here, but
:10:27. > :10:31.in principle, it is incredibly important that you convey a person's
:10:32. > :10:36.life with an obituary, not just a sensitivity towards relatives and
:10:37. > :10:39.the moment that he's died. We had hundreds of complaints from people
:10:40. > :10:45.who are very angry and who said the BBC did not give enough attention to
:10:46. > :10:49.Martin McGuinness's terrorist past. What I would say to them, one of the
:10:50. > :10:54.images of this week that stays with me about Martin McGuinness, the
:10:55. > :11:01.First Minister, Arlene Foster, going to the funeral yesterday, as a
:11:02. > :11:05.member of the DUP party, at the funeral of a former IRA commander,
:11:06. > :11:09.and that is a pretty extraordinary juxtaposition of someone who should
:11:10. > :11:13.be a sworn enemy but recognises this is quite complex and I don't
:11:14. > :11:18.underplay in anyway the fact that as I say people hated this man. But it
:11:19. > :11:21.is the job at the BBC to represent the totality of somebody and the
:11:22. > :11:26.views across the board of that person. Gavin Allen, thanks for
:11:27. > :11:33.joining us. Thank you for your comments this week. Please share
:11:34. > :11:40.your opinions on BBC News by calling us or e-mailing us. We also on
:11:41. > :11:48.Twitter. Have a look at the website for previous discussions. That is
:11:49. > :11:49.all from us and we will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News
:11:50. > :12:02.coverage next week. Goodbye. The weather is the king great this
:12:03. > :12:05.week in, these guys will be clearing pretty much everywhere through the
:12:06. > :12:11.course of the evening and overnight -- is looking great. It will be a
:12:12. > :12:12.chilly night. This is the high