17/11/2017 Newswatch

management. More on that later in

the sports bulletin.

Now it's time for Newswatch.

This week Samira Ahmed

hears your thoughts

about the BBC's Brexit coverage.

Hello and welcome to the show.

Halfway to Brexit so how is the

BBC's coverage doing? Biased,

baffling and boring save you ease --

assay viewers. We asked how to

inform viewers on this most divisive

issue. First, event in Zimbabwe

which first came to the attention of

news desks on Tuesday evening. It

has been taking a while to work out

what exact has happened, it was a

military coup or not. The confusion

was not helped by the BBC quoting as

a source a fake Twitter account in

the name of the ruling party,

Zanu-PF. On BBC One television,

breaking news alert and the website.

It is not clear that she runs the

account which referred to an elderly

man who had been taken advantage of

by his wife being detained in a

bloodless transition. Some people

were unimpressed.

BBC World News later apologised and

a spokesperson said...

On Wednesday Boris Johnson met

Richard Ratcliffe whose wife is in

prison in Iran and that prompted the

dimensions on the BBC the Foreign

Secretary's incorrect statement last

week that she had been working in

the country training journalists.

She was on holiday. On Sunday Andrew

Marr followed up on the comment by

asking Michael Gove about Nazanin

Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

What was she

doing when she went to Iran?

I don't

know. One of the things I want to

stress, there is no reason why

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should be

in prison in Iran as far as any of

us know.

You say you don't know what

shooting, her husband is clear she

was on holiday. That what she was

doing.

I take her husband 's

assurance.

He said she was training

journalists that has been grabbed by

the Iranian judicially to put her

plight into an even worse position

also that is surely his fault.

Whatever we as Democrats choose to

do or say extremist will choose to

deploy for their own purposes. We

play their game. We point the finger

at Democrat to try to do the right

thing when it is extremist

responsible for the use of human

rights.

That exchange, and what

Boris Johnson said about it, went on

for around five minutes and prompted

this reaction about Andrew Marr.

This week saw the latest chapter in

the saga of the UK Buddha

preparations for leaving the EU with

the withdrawal bill reaching its

stake in the House of Commons. It is

part of a compact legislative

process in Westminster mirrored by

equally lengthy negotiations in

Brussels where David Davis and

Michel Barnier have reached the six

macro round of talks. BBC News have

been following the talks every step

of the way.

12 months after the UK

voted to leave the EU, the first

formal talks to set the terms of

departure have taken place in

Brussels. Michel Barnier, the chief

negotiator. Said he hoped the talks

would be held in a constructive

atmosphere.

Behind the smart suits,

stiff smiles, and it was clear that

both sides are talking at cross

purposes. Time is a precious

commodity. Don't the UK and the EU

know it. We are halfway between the

date of our referendum and actually

leaving the club. Expect many more

face-offs along the way. And if

those negotiations are proving

tricky, so too is the BBC's task in

covering Brexit in a way that

satisfies the audience of its

impartiality while keeping it

informed in a clear and interesting

way. Not everyone feels that is

being achieved. Martin from Plymouth

said...

Meanwhile, David begged...

And another few had this concern...

The BBC's Europe editor catcher

Adler spent much of her life living

and breathing the Brexit process and

she joins me now. The biggest

complaint we get is about perceived

bias, a sense that BBC reporting is

constantly knocking British

negotiators.

It is a fair comment

that you would expect to make. As

Europe editor is my job to put

across the European perspective.

That might come across as anti-UK

but it is putting across the other

point of view. As we see these

negotiations becoming pretty bad

tempered, obviously there is very

differing points of view.

Taking all

that on board, viewers feel we don't

seem to get the same scrutiny of EU

negotiators and their strategy.

Since the negotiations started, I

don't know if you're familiar with

the Sicilian word omerta which means

silence. EU leaders have been told

to zip it and only let Mr Barney

speak about Brexit -- Michel

Barnier. We just don't have that

same access at this stage to talk to

the main players on the European

side as we do on the British side to

put those difficult questions to

them on camera or on the record in a

radio interview. I understand that

for our viewers and listeners that

is extremely frustrating and it

feels like when not doing our job

but believe me, because it is my

job, I am doing it and asking those

questions but the players are not

allowing me to do that on the record

and that is why I have to quote

sources and contacts and EU

diplomats.

A lot of complaints say

there is acres of coverage that

little fact. Why do you spend so

much airtime speculating?

Many in

the UK feel we voted for Brexit and

it's a done deal and we can move on

and see some action. There isn't

much action. I feel your pain on

that one because we have to deal

with that as well. Brexit remains

one of the top stories of importance

for us in the UK so it is going to

remain right up there and we have to

keep coming back to it as the

negotiating rounds proceeds. Even

though actually, for example the

last round, pretty much nothing

happened in terms of news terms but

we had to cover it and say that very

little had happened. That leads you

to speculate, and that is where it

comes in, if there will be a deal in

the end or will we be in a no deal

scenario.

How do you feel about

viewers think that the coverage is

too complicated?

I would say that

Brexit is a very combative issue.

What about the financial services

industry, agriculture, other goods,

what happens to the label that says

made in the UK but between the jar

and the labelled the content it

crosses over between the UK and

Europe several times before a

product is finished? These are all

fiendishly compensated and that is

why, as well as the Brexit

negotiators, you have lawyers on

both sides. This is dry and detailed

stuff but that is what goes into

untangling the UK from the EU and in

the end will do into making a trade

agreement between the two sides.

Repetitive coverage is a bit charge

also a lot of men in grey suit

walking out of buildings. Is making

this coverage front and interesting

and challenging question of on a

daily and hourly and weekly level it

can seem quite dreary without much

progress.

I can tell you that here

in Brussels I am surrounded by the

EU institutions and they are grey

and full of people in grey suits.

That can be a bit difficult

sometimes, the way we can lift it is

in a different kind of coverage we

have this whether it is my blog

where I can get some colour into it,

we have the Brexit podcast as well.

Tell us about that, what is the

thinking behind it?

It is two fold

really. On the one hand, if I have

to do a Q and a on got news, and

often told, you got 50 seconds in

which to get so much nuance in and

that's pretty much impossible. Never

mind trying to get fact and a bit of

colour. You go on Brexitcast you

have ages of time to chat. We have

our hosts and Laura Kuenssberg as

well, a lot of knowledge in there

and a lot of humour and we are able

to get some humour into it. But I

admit, Brexit is not something where

events happen in a fast and furious

manner but it is a hugely dramatic

moment in EU and UK history.

Thank

you for coming on. Before we go, no

secret that some newspapers like to

have a go at the BBC and this week

the Sun Italy enjoy doing so.

Published photographs of night shift

workers asleep at their desks,

passed to them a fellow member of

staff who complained... We won't

embarrass our sleeping colleagues

that we will mention the response of

Middle East correspondent Quentin

Sommerville, perhaps recovering from

his exclusive report on Sunday.

Thank you for all of your comments

this week. If you want to share your

opinions or even appear on the

programme you can call us on this

number.

You can find us on Twitter and have

a look at our website for previous

discussions.

That is all from us, we will be back

to hear your thoughts about BBC News

coverage