08/09/2017 Newswatch

Now it's time for Newswatch, presented by Samira Ahmed.

This week, the BBC expands its services in other languages.

Welcome to Newswatch. Coming up... After recent nuclear missile test,

is this a good time for the BBC to launch which service targeted at

North Korea? Should BBC News be covering a story about an

unfortunate incident in a toilet. First, many of those interviewed on

news and current affairs programmes have been advised by public

relations professionals on what to say and how to behave. If you are

appearing on TV as a PR person yourself, what could possibly go

wrong? On Monday's Newsnight, the co-founder of Belle Pottinger, which

had been expelled by the PR trade body for unethical behaviour in

South Africa, demonstrated the answer to that question. You were

the man who went out to South Africa to secure this deal...

, sorry about that. Don't worry about it. We went out to the people

who represented the Gupta 's. He knew of all...

One of the key things is the problem with the account. This reaction on

Twitter was called... There was more embarrassment on

Tuesday for the Home Office after the Guardian published a draft

document it obtained containing proposals aimed at cutting the

numbers of low skilled migrants from Europe following Brexit. The BBC

followed up the story but one viewer rang us with his concerns over the

journalistic ethics. How do the BBC and other media sources justify

broadcasting information to the public from so-called leaked

documents? They are not leaked, they are stolen. The media should be

forced, by law, to divulge their informant's details so be made them

be prosecuted and lose their jobs. Which they are obviously not fit to

be in any way. It is theft. We have had reaction to panorama, showing

distressing footage from an immigration removal Centre,

Brockhaus, which had been filmed secretly by a member of staff. BBC

News picked up on the story last Friday. Undercover investigation

mark, abuse or assault detainees. The incident is picked up by the

hidden camera worn by another officer.

He has worked here for two years and he approached Panorama after

becoming disturbed about the working practices he saw. He was applauded

the documentary and Tracy Jensen called it...

The BBC's motto going back 90 years has been nations shall speak peace

unto nation. But which nations? The BBC is updating its provision of

language services by adding several new ones, including one in pigeon.

It is spoken by 75 million people in Nigeria and many more elsewhere in

Africa. The introduction last month of audio

updates in pigeon with daily video bulletins due to be added in

November, has already had an impact on social media and it is part of

what the BBC World Service is calling its biggest expansion since

the 1940s with 1400 staff being hired, backed by ?289 million of

government funding. 12 new language services are launching. They include

one targeted at North Korea, where, particularly at this time of

heightened international tension over nuclear missile tests, it seems

unlikely the BBC will be greeted with open arms.

To talk about what the BBC's changing with its language services,

I am joined by the deputy editor of the BBC world language group. We

mention Korean and pigeon, what are you expanding and why? We are

opening 11 language services. The Korean service for the Korean

peninsula and Korean speaking audiences around the world. We have

done this because there has never been a greater need for the reliable

and independent language the BBC provides. In some countries where

some news is available, but in many countries where there isn't very

much all reliable international news, it has been part of our

mission since the war. It is a continuation and extension of that.

In deciding what languages you offer, a lot of countries don't have

independent news. Those audiences who don't have a lot of choices. A

number of the Bridges services, we are opening a number of languages to

cover Ethiopia and Eritrea because we see a lack of free access to

independent and reliable news in that market. We have three

additional Nigerian languages. Audiences watching Newswatch, we pay

a licence fee, where is the money coming from? The extension is coming

from new government investment. It was done because it felt there

wasn't a commercial case, you could never run these services on a

commercial basis. The licence fee payers pay for existing World

Service? They pay for a certain amount of it and the government has

come in with the money for the expansion of these language

services. The BBC is supposed to be independent and when you are

expanding into places like the Korean peninsula with government

money, doesn't it look political? The BBC has had grand and aid

funding from the government over a long time to pay for the World

Service. In that time, we were confident our own independent

editorial content. We wouldn't take money from the government if it had

editorial strings attached. The government understand that and they

don't want the BBC News to be viewed with suspicion as the voice of the

government. For the government, they have pagan expansion of the

services, it was the BBC who decided which languages we added. Although

the government retains a role in deciding if any future services are

close, the BBC has editorial independence on what goes on those

services. The BBC of professional diplomats. The North Korean

government has told the BBC it is not happy about this new language

service. Is it provocative to go ahead? We think there is a value in

areas of tension for there to be access for impartial and reliable

and independent news. We think it helps de-escalate points of

international tension. Our view is, the BBC will help in the long-term

with access. There is a huge amount of concern about fake news on how it

is being manipulated by countries to ferment into ethnic problems in

different territories around the world. The BBC has an important

mission to get into that space and make sure that a free and impartial

and accurate information is available as a gold standard, if you

like. We help it de-escalate 's political tensions, not the other

way around. What about the journalists providing the services,

some will be based in London, but in places like North Korea, where you

have no presence on the ground, how dangerous it might be to provide a

service tailored for a local market? We don't have an operational base in

North Korea, but the BBC does periodically get access inside North

Korea, albeit under restrictive and you are monitored and surveilled by

the authorities. But the issues of whom are the journalists providing

that language service, who maybe the National is from there? The

objective of this service is not political. We do language and

countries. It is a Korean language service for all Korean language

speaking services. We're not setting it up as a platform for dissidents

or to destabilise the North Korean government. If we did do that, in

that political weight it with the and devalue the BBC's international

bases around the world. It would be counter-productive and we would not

do it. We are doing it on the same basis as other International News

service to provide independent, trusted, free news, but for the

values as journalists and not as a political objective.

Jamie Angus, thank you. A light-hearted story that has been

fascinated but disgusting some viewers this week. Because it

concerns a toilet mishap. It is about an unnamed woman from Bristol

on a first date. What happened when she went back to his house and

needed the toilet. Are you ready? Here is headache,

Liam Smith. Unfortunately it wouldn't flush and she decided to

throw it out of the window. My house is quirky and the bathroom doesn't

open into the outside garden. It opens to an air gap and there is a

double glazed window between that and the outside garden. She was

reaching in to try and get the to out of the window. She asked me help

to get out and she was stuck. Embarrassing, certainly. Unpleasant,

undoubtedly. Newsworthy? Some people had their doubts, including Michael

Hill e-mail... Thank you for all your comments, if

you want to share your opinions on BBC News and current affairs or

appear on the programme, you can call us on...

Do have a look at our website. That is all from us, I will be back in a

fortnight and Roger Bolton will be here next week to hear your thoughts

about BBC News coverage. We are still dodging downpours this

evening but some will be turning dry as the evening goes on. We will keep

a feed of showers coming over Northern