31/03/2017 Newswatch

At ten o'clock will have a full round-up of today's news. In a

moment the last film review from my colleague Gavin Esler. First, time

for Newswatch. Brexit is officially under we but is

the BBC playing down the views of unhappy Remainers like the tens of

thousands who marched in London last weekend? Complaints as well that BBC

News is much too negative about leaving. So how do you cover this in

century subject impartially? 60 years ago last Saturday the Treaty

of Rome, the funding agreement of what became the European Union, was

signed. The anniversary was marked across Europe but march in London

that day was not so much a celebration as a protest against the

decision of Britain to leave the EU. After the violence a few short days

ago a protest with peace and love at its heart. Thousands made their way

to Parliament Square, many like pensioner Jacqueline Skelton had

never protested before, many of her generation voted to leave in the

referendum but she sees that as a disaster for her home City of

London. That report which went on to hear from a number of people from

the demonstration ran on BBC London is but the BBC One national network

bulletins only mentioned the march in passing with ten seconds of

footage showing. Many people complained to the BBC about what

they saw as insufficient coverage, two of those viewers recorded their

thoughts on Camara for us. As Article 50 was triggered on March 29

would have thought that much more credence would have been given to

the march taking place. The early evening news put the numbers

attending and 20,000. I consider that there were a great deal more

than this. As leaving the EU is such a momentous decision in this country

and for some of us, a disaster, we should have had a lot more coverage

than we actually got. We deserve better. It was disappointing to find

an organisation of the BBC's reputation, supportively impartial

reporting body, had neglected to give appropriate cover to this huge

event. I would like to know whether BBC did not deem it sufficiently

newsworthy. Thank you. Would put the points to BBC News. A spokesperson

said, there was significant coverage of the marches on the main

bulletins, on the BBC News Channel and online and we also covered other

political developments including the resignation of Douglas Carswell from

Ukip. Impartiality is our cornerstone and we go to great

lengths to ensure that we balance news and will continue to discover

developments in fair and impartial manner. The start of the week of

news which has been dominated by the triggering of Article 50 on

Wednesday. It kick-starts officially the process of leaving the European

Union. The subject was extensively covered on the BBC with input from

members of the public giving their views on the UK's decision to depart

and what they expect from the next two years of talks. It was all too

much were David Roberson, who wrote this. There is no way that the BBC

has any idea of the final outcome of the Brexit negotiations so I spent

time interviewing people on the street who have even less

information about what the future holds. This is another viewers said

we have constant streams of ministers, ex-ministers, actors,

singers, etc, saying that they don't know what the outcome of the

negotiations will be. You are quoting. Card we leave it alone

until there is some news to report? Not much chance of the BBC or any of

the media leaving it alone, certainly not on Wednesday when in a

special programme on BBC One and renewal interviewed the Prime

Minister followed by a number of other party leaders. The presenter

got praise for the way that he conducted piece interviews including

this telephone message. Thank goodness for Andrew Neill. One of

the very few in the BBC to stick to strictly accurate quotation. In

general there is far too much sloppiness and buyers but bravo

Andrew Neill. That allegations of bias in relation to Brexit is one we

have heard since before the referendum in June and politicians

have joined in the argument with 70 MPs writing to newspapers last week

that the BBC had fallen far short of its obligation to provide balanced

coverage and had skewed good economic news since the referendum.

On Thursday a rival group of politicians wrote another letter

calling on the BBC to resist attempts at political interference

and report fearlessly and impartially on the Brexit

negotiations. That divided reaction was also evident among Newswatch

viewers. Most people sided with this anonymous caller. Might I suggest

that just for once the BBC could be more upbeat about our leaving the

European Union? It has been so depressing, having to listen to all

your presenters and God knows how many political editors you have

talking about Brexit. Always, always in a negative fashion. Please try

and be a little more positive. Thank you. Weather Brexit is a cause for

celebration and a great opportunity for the UK to take back control or a

process which has already had negative consequences and faces

substantial difficulties depends on your point of view. Yet others

agreed that the BBC has emphasised the latter at the cost of the

former. Danny Gothard. I really am getting tired of the BBC's biased

reporting of anything to do with Brexit. Country file giving nothing

but negative opinions on what could happen to farmers. BBC world News

this morning, global sales could drop 30% if we lose access to the

single EU market. This Morning saying 70,000 banking jobs could be

lost if no deal is struck. For heavens sake stop speculating.

Another viewers said this. I realise the BBC is not want Brexit as is

evident from the scaremongering and biased interviews. However democracy

has spoken and it is time that everyone in the country backed it.

The deal we get from the EU would be far better if we did not constantly

report on the fears of what lies ahead. Lets take a step back and

examine the BBC's approach to reporting our forthcoming departure

from the EU. Strong feelings on all sides. Is there something different

about Brexit which makes the BBC's commitment to impartiality any

challenge? I think whenever you have a referendum in particular, opinion

becomes polarised and fees become entrenched and it is very difficult

often to appreciate all value impartiality in those circumstances.

That vote is now done. Leave have won and our job now is to scrutinise

carefully the execution of Brexit. And how the government carries out

Brexit, how it carries out its negotiations but to scrutinise not

just the government but all politicians and that is why Andrew

Neill did the interviews this week with party leaders across the UK.

And also to scrutinise European Union officials. The job is now much

more intricate and complicated than a simple mathematical balance

between people who were Remain or Leave. So that journalistic

challenge is strong but the audience trusts the BBC to do it more than

anyone else. But we did get a lot of complaints, particularly from people

who fear the BBC is always wearing and what might go wrong. There will

be parts of the community who will have concerns about it and we should

report that. I don't think every time we find someone who is

optimistic or pessimistic we should suddenly have to find the opposite

view every time. We are no longer in that situation of mathematical

balance. What we have to do is reported properly so that the

audience understands what the challenges are. That stomach that

must be a broad range. Not just those people who are worried, those

people who think their opportunities. The references to

that March, the BBC goes to great lengths to ensure impartial

coverage. How do you do that? We put a lot of obligation on individual

editors of programmes to do that. Part of what I do is help make those

judgments. But across time it may not be in one individual programme,

it may be a series of programmes, people have to think about making

sure they are getting bad range of view. Is that about a headcount or

measuring air time? It is important we don't pretend that you can get

impartiality by a stopwatch or an abacus or a calculator. You don't

measure it by maths. You get impartiality by really good

judgment. That is what our editors are trying to do all the time.

People also wonder how they could report a story like Lloyds bank of

moving jobs to Brussels, for some viewers it is about emphasising the

negative whereas that is only part of a changing picture. I think you

have to make judgments on developing stories, and take advice from the

business community itself. Editors are making judgments about those

things. I agree it is important that when you hear those stories you also

hear others that might reflected from a different perspective. After

all this is going to go on for long time. In the coming years there will

be many examples of this. I think it's quite right that editors should

be challenged to think about a wide range of views, not just those

stories that have been talked about. On the other hand many viewers have

got in touch with Newswatch to say, any critics of the Brexit strategy

are labelled Remoaners and they feel that some editors are code by

viewers and complain to the Director General. Are you coward? One MP said

this week that relying on MPs to be arbiters of impartiality is like

asking Sir Alex Ferguson to referee at home match at Old Trafford! We

should listen to criticism, act on it and it is also important that we

are robust in defending the BBC's editorial decisions and journalism

when we get political pressure. Sometimes they will be genuine

issues and sometimes political pressure, so it is important for the

independence of the BBC that they withstand about. Thank you very

much. Thank you all for your comments. If you want to share your

views on current affairs get in touch by calling us or by sending an

e-mail. We are on Twitter. Also do look at our website. That's all from

us. We will be back to view your thoughts on BBC news coverage again

next week. Goodbye. Coming up in a few moments a

detailed forecast of the weather for the week ahead followed by the day's

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