:00:00. > :00:00.At ten p.m., Fiona Bruce will be hit with a full round-up of the day's
:00:00. > :00:20.news. Now it is time for Newswatch. They are off again as BBC News
:00:21. > :00:24.embarks on covering another general election campaign, how much
:00:25. > :00:25.attention should be given to the views of people like Brenda from
:00:26. > :00:29.Bristol? And correspondent John
:00:30. > :00:38.Sudworth on the challenges of reporting from North Korea,
:00:39. > :00:47.surrounded by government minders. My job is to work out how far I can
:00:48. > :00:48.push being a nuisance and an annoyance without getting me or my
:00:49. > :00:52.team into difficulty. Tuesday morning saw one of those
:00:53. > :00:55.moments when, after an hour of speculative gossip, almost everyone
:00:56. > :01:09.here in the niche broadcasting House listened to an announcement,
:01:10. > :01:13.takes a deep breath and embarks on a period of frenzied,
:01:14. > :01:15.journalistic activity which, in this case,
:01:16. > :01:17.could last for seven weeks I have just chaired a meeting
:01:18. > :01:21.of the Cabinet, where we agreed that the Government should
:01:22. > :01:24.call a general election, to be held All day, reporters and presenters
:01:25. > :01:29.flocked to Downing Street. Occasionally there
:01:30. > :01:32.was some activity. Mr Johnson, are you looking forward
:01:33. > :01:34.to an early election? Cabinet ministers have been
:01:35. > :01:44.in there since 8:30am. Mr Hunt, are you looking
:01:45. > :01:51.forward to an election? I get a feeling it's
:01:52. > :01:54.going to be a futile task. No one is going to want
:01:55. > :01:58.to tramp Theresa May. They will be very obedient and walk
:01:59. > :02:01.straight down the street. And when Mrs May appeared later,
:02:02. > :02:07.Eleanor Garnier was just as vocal. Have you changed your
:02:08. > :02:11.mind, Prime Minister? How many more times are you going
:02:12. > :02:18.to change your mind, Prime Minister? The practice of shouting
:02:19. > :02:24.questions at Downing Street came under attack again
:02:25. > :02:31.from Newswatch viewers. Norman Smith
:02:32. > :02:34.interrupted his piece to camera to shout at Boris Johnson
:02:35. > :02:37.and others as the entered Number 10. It makes these really experienced
:02:38. > :02:45.reporters look foolish and amateur Alan Adams wrote him after watching
:02:46. > :02:48.Eleanor Garnier in what he described as ridiculous questions,
:02:49. > :02:51.such as the classic, how many more U-turns, which was delivered
:02:52. > :02:54.as a personal, political statement? It must surely qualify
:02:55. > :03:23.as the most pointless All this voting doesn't please
:03:24. > :03:26.everyone, I'd Brenda, in Bristol. There's too much politics
:03:27. > :03:39.going on at the moment. Less than 24 hours in
:03:40. > :03:53.and you have already Brenda swiftly became
:03:54. > :04:04.the overnight media sensation. The BBC rode the wave
:04:05. > :04:06.enthusiastically with a follow-up report on the following
:04:07. > :04:08.night from Jon Kay. This was all too much.,
:04:09. > :04:14.such as Anthony Parry, who begged, please, please,
:04:15. > :04:16.stop showing Brenda from The PM does not have a strong enough
:04:17. > :04:27.mandate to fight for Brenda's rights during
:04:28. > :04:29.the Brexit negotiations. The PM's reasons
:04:30. > :04:30.are totally apparent. Why is the BBC
:04:31. > :04:38.continuing to show her? There will be plenty
:04:39. > :04:54.more to say on Newswatch about the BBC election coverage
:04:55. > :04:59.over the next few weeks. But, for now, let's leave it
:05:00. > :05:03.with this plea from Clare. Now that an election has been
:05:04. > :05:07.called, can the BBC provide debate that is wide-ranging
:05:08. > :05:10.and informative? and the referendum,
:05:11. > :05:19.the public was not well of time spent
:05:20. > :05:29.chasing fashionable hares possibility that Labour
:05:30. > :05:44.might have a pact with This was a failure of effective
:05:45. > :05:45.debate. BBC, please, raise your gain. Adversarial interviews are not
:05:46. > :05:56.always the most enlightening. Away from all the political
:05:57. > :06:00.excitement in Britain, world News has been dominated by escalating
:06:01. > :06:06.tensions between the United States and North Korea. The highly
:06:07. > :06:11.repressive and secretive state was preparing for a fixed nuclear test.
:06:12. > :06:22.On Monday it warned of all out war if the United States used military
:06:23. > :06:26.force against it. John Sudworth was invited to Pyongchang where he
:06:27. > :06:30.interviewed the Vice Foreign Minister. We asked him on his
:06:31. > :06:38.expectations of the journalistic trip with a difference. North Korea
:06:39. > :06:42.is all about shows of strength. The first day came in this tae kwon do
:06:43. > :06:47.demonstration. The journalists, when they arrive, and I have been on a
:06:48. > :06:52.few of these trips now, you are met by at least one government minder.
:06:53. > :06:56.In our case on this visit, two government minders, he were our own
:06:57. > :07:01.personal minders for the rest of the six days we were in Pyongyang. So,
:07:02. > :07:25.they basically followed our every step. More than
:07:26. > :07:27.that, they set our itinerary in the first place. They came along and
:07:28. > :07:29.watched over every interview we did. Occasionally quibbled over questions
:07:30. > :07:32.we asked, or took issue with things I had said to camera. My own
:07:33. > :07:34.recorded thoughts for the reporting I was doing upset them on occasion.
:07:35. > :07:37.It is the same for any journalist who is ever given permission to go
:07:38. > :07:40.into North Korea. You might think, what is the point? I would argue
:07:41. > :07:44.there is a point. We can, given all that has limitations, still speak to
:07:45. > :07:47.ordinary North Korean citizens and we are able, of course is to judge
:07:48. > :07:50.for ourselves how much of what they are telling us is what they really
:07:51. > :07:57.feel or how much is being filtered because they know they are being
:07:58. > :08:02.watched by an official. The dear Marshall, Kim Jong Un, beats and
:08:03. > :08:10.clothes us, this nine-year-old girl tells me. Somebody who wants to
:08:11. > :08:14.speak their own mind, tell something a little different, that would
:08:15. > :08:18.challenge the official line. The risks would be so extreme that we
:08:19. > :08:23.have to assume that we're not getting anywhere close to real
:08:24. > :08:27.opinion. That said, you know, you can still judge in people's
:08:28. > :08:33.reactions to the sort of questions you ask. You can tell, through the
:08:34. > :08:38.sorts of pauses they may before answering. You can see them
:08:39. > :08:44.second-guess the questions and learn a lot from doing that. Even leaving
:08:45. > :08:49.aside the difficulty of speaking to ordinary people, just to be inside
:08:50. > :08:56.North Korea, this most totalitarian states. To feel for ourselves the
:08:57. > :09:02.way in which every aspect of civil life, social life, is utterly owned
:09:03. > :09:09.and controlled by the system, I think is useful. It is an
:09:10. > :09:14.extraordinary sight. Every now and again, it wants the world to hear
:09:15. > :09:22.something. We were invited in, along with a couple of other foreign
:09:23. > :09:26.reporters, to witness its ground, great, military parade. This was a
:09:27. > :09:32.show of strength. This was a signal to the world, of course, about the
:09:33. > :09:38.state of advancement of its missile technology. This was, if you like, a
:09:39. > :09:43.message of defiance, that North Korea had carefully calibrated, that
:09:44. > :09:49.it wanted to send to one particular audience, of course, in president
:09:50. > :09:54.Donald Trump. It wanted the world's media, to amplify and broadcast that
:09:55. > :09:58.message on its behalf. We are being used, to some extent, another word
:09:59. > :10:04.of caution, about these trips. Standing alongside that parade,
:10:05. > :10:08.watching the crowds, trying to judge for ourselves whether the
:10:09. > :10:12.extraordinary emotion on display is real or manufactured. Again, all of
:10:13. > :10:17.that is useful. There have been instances where foreign reporters
:10:18. > :10:21.have found themselves in a tricky situation, as a result of the regime
:10:22. > :10:27.taking issue with their reporting. I think, on the round, it's fair to
:10:28. > :10:32.conclude because North Korea has invited the foreign media, because
:10:33. > :10:36.they want us to project a certain message on their behalf, but they
:10:37. > :10:44.also understand that, with that, comes a certain nuisance and
:10:45. > :10:49.annoyance. For me on the ground, my job is to work out how far I can
:10:50. > :10:53.push being a nuisance and an annoyance without crossing a line
:10:54. > :11:01.getting me or my team into difficulty. We need to afford the
:11:02. > :11:05.people we are dealing with inside North Korea, at least that due
:11:06. > :11:11.respect. As long as we do that I think we are on pretty safe ground.
:11:12. > :11:14.Thank you very much. Finally, coverage of the gun attack that
:11:15. > :11:17.killed a policeman on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Thursday
:11:18. > :11:22.evening raised again the thorny issue for journalists. Outlined here
:11:23. > :11:25.by Jeff Richmond from Worcestershire. You'll be really
:11:26. > :11:29.good if BBC News script writers and editors could share with us how they
:11:30. > :11:37.define the word, terrorism, when reporting incidents.
:11:38. > :11:44.Thank you to all of you who got in touch with us this week. If you want
:11:45. > :11:52.to share your opinions, or even appear on the programme, you can
:11:53. > :11:58.call us. Or e-mail News watch. You can find us on twitter. Do have a
:11:59. > :12:07.look at previous discussions on the website. That is all from us. We'll
:12:08. > :12:08.be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News coverage again next week.
:12:09. > :12:34.Goodbye. In the sport, a first chance for
:12:35. > :12:35.fans and players to pay their respects to the former