of the speech. then, mr smith commented that these issues had undermined mrs may's authority. this is not the kind of political discussion and analysis i would expect from the bbc's deputy political editor. so... excuse me. will you stop showing that footage of theresa may coughing? it's disgraceful. just give her a break. you wouldn't be doing that if it was a bloke or if it wasjeremy corbyn. stop showing that silly clip. it has nothing to do with anything. theresa may's speech had many of us covering our eyes. watching it through our hands, wondering if she would get to the end. this was a dreadful end to a difficult week for theresa may. that speech was less the british dream, it felt like a nightmare in a whole, it was a struggle. somehow i knew it would happen,

but i was still shocked when i heard the reports. all of them concentrated on two trivial things. the fact she had a coughing fit, and then the protester who gave her this fake p45 form. what they said about the content of the speech was virtually zero. that's the important thing. then they made it even worse, by implying the fact she was stuttering a little bit meant she was weak and incompetent as a leader. it's unbelievable. jeff ogram with his comment, there. thank you to all those who contacted us. john zilkha is controller of the bbc news channels and hejoins me now. too much time on the coughing, the attention seeker, and the letters falling off the slogan? i think there was a clear balance in terms of how the coverage had to run on wednesday afternoon. there had been a huge amount of discussion in the weeks leading up to the conservative party conference about the prime minister's authority and leadership. it was clearly stated through the morning that this would be a very important speech in terms of what she would deliver and put across in her programme.

therefore, the delivery of the speech and the performance was as important as the policies themselves. through the course of the day, in the afternoon, on the 1pm news and the 6pm and 10pm there was plenty of analysis of the policy coverage as well. to suggest the performance overshadowed the coverage of the policy wouldn't be quite fair. that's what viewers felt, they felt the headlines, the focus was on the detail of what went wrong. and anyone who's ever spoken in public will sympathise with the bad luck, especially the coughing. you're right, clearly the setbacks in the speech were a major part of the coverage, but there was also plenty of analysis on policy detail as well. looking at the news at one, there was a package on the housing component of the speech. there was a separate piece around the proposed energy price cap. during the afternoon, we had a conservative mp on the energy price cap. later at 5pm, there was a further interview on the price cap, and on the 6pm and 10pm, john pienaar picked apart policy details around energy, housing and organ donation.

so all those areas were extensively pursued in the afternoon and evening, but the headline was focused around the performance of the prime minister during the speech. why then the musical compilation that breakfast and daily politics did? bbc outlets were playing the coughing over and over. some of us can remember discussing ed miliband and the bacon sandwich coverage as bullying on newswatch before. this feels like the same sort of issue to many viewers. it comes to whether i would categorise it in that way, i would say look at the voices there that were sympathetic to her. as soon as the speech finished, the daily politics had an interview with katy perrior who used to be the director of communications at downing street, and she said it made her warm to theresa may. what about the musical compilation? that's a bbc choice to give prominence. that was one treatment of many that covered that went alongside the speech coverage of 2a hours of continuous coverage of the speech. one, as i said, that was regarded as particularly critical to her future leadership. the real concern underlying this is that many viewers feel bbc

political coverage is increasingly obsessed with the gossip, rumour and performance, and you're reporting and focusing all that, and even encouraging it, at the expense of reporting facts. we always have to be mindful of the balance between reporting the content of policy initiatives and how they are conveyed. we are acutely conscious we are in a critical policy period, as the brexit negotiations are conducted. we have undertaken to make sure we have plenty of discussion of policy themselves throughout our coverage over the next 18 months as the brexit negotiations continue, with specific days of coverage dedicated just to that. we had one last week and we will have another in a couple of weeks' time. i think the charge we are not interested in the policy is misplaced. i would also say that clearly one of the most important factors of the last few months, when it comes to political coverage, has been that of leadership itself, be to that of conservative or the labour party. it's not surprising when coverage

around party conferences in particular focuses around that particular issue. thank you, stay with us, because we will talk a little more. the gun attack in las vegas late on sunday night was the deadliest mass shooting in modern american history. as details and footage emerged over the hours and days that followed, bbc news outlets described the horror of what happened using audio recordings of gunfire, pictures of terrified concertgoers from survivors' mobile phones and video from police body cameras. also testimony from witnesses and relatives. although we have restricted what we are showing in this programme, some of that material was distressing and alarming. too much for liz lane who e—mailed... and robert harvey agreed...

john zilkha is still with me. there was obviously a lot of mobile phone footage filmed by people can you talk me through what you decided to use and show, and what did you decide not to? obviously, in situations like this, such a horrific case, we have to exercise great care in the footage we show. we have an awful lot of footage and images available to us. we take the view that the footage we would use would have to enhance and amplify our storytelling in some way. our first duty in these situations is to tell the story, to report the news.

it is a balance between reporting those facts, to explain to people what has happened, and as far as we can, why and how it has happened, and not to cause unjustifiable distress. i think the use of these images in this particular case allowed us to tell the story that was a particularly dramatic one, an obviously horrific event, but in a way that was sensitive and told people of the difficulties and chaos that ensued. just for people to understand, you choose stuff that maybe doesn't go on air. what is the sort of thing that you would have said is not be appropriate to put out? when it's particular clear that anyone is suffering particular distress, obviously people were very frightened and the sounds of that was palpable, but anything that showed people suffering, we did not show people wounded, for example, we were very careful to avoid doing that. the sounds and images that we showed amplified a specific point, which was the confusing nature of the event. it was very unclear to people

where the shooting was coming from, it was very unusual, coming from the 32nd floor of a high—rise tower block. there was clearly a lot of distress and confusion in the sense that the gunfire would start, go on for a prolonged period, and then stopped while he reloaded his weapons and then start again. one of the eyewitnesses described it very vividly, how they sought to escape between each pause in gunfire. the footage we used helped us tell that story. there is a bbc policy of not showing the moment of death, but by broadcasting the gunfire repeatedly all day, many viewers feel that it crossed the line and it was unduly upsetting and voyeuristic. with reflection, did you really have to you run the footage of the gunfire? i think the gunfire is a very key part of the story. what has emerged now is the nature of the weapons themselves. these were weapons that were adjusted with a particular device that allowed them to become automatic weapons, which are illegal. that is what caused the increase and rapidity of the gunfire, meaning the loss of life and casualties were so immense. i think in that sense it's

absolutely necessary that the gunfire was a key part of the story. we were extremely mindful to warn people, particularly in the news at one, that those distressing images were coming, and i think it was the right thing to do. some people complained about footage running all day, that unsettled some viewers. that it did not feel right or necessary to them, the repetition element. on the news channel, people are coming throughout the day for the latest headlines. on the main bulletins, it was clear we had to tell as complete a story as we could. the use of the images was not extensive. they were there to help us tell the story of an extremely confused and distressing situation. the use of the gunfire sounds were there to amplify the fact that the nature of the event and the duration of the event, the fact that it went on for ten minutes, was so unusual. john zilkha, thank you for coming on newswatch. that's all from us, thank you for your comments this week.

if you want to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs, or even appear on the programme, you can call or e—mail us. you can find us on twitter and do have a look at our website. that's all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello there. we've had a treat over the last couple of evenings. some amazing sunset pictures and this was one of them actually from friday evening. beautiful colours there, all because the sun was setting underneath this bank of high cloud that's been streaming down from the north—west. another picture there, this time from coventry. you can see the layers of cloud. that cloud has been thickening and it's been bringing with it outbreaks of rain from the north—west. that's spilling down

across england and wales. the rain not amounting to very much, but it does mean it's much more difficult to see the moon at the moment. a lot of cloud as we head into the weekend. throughout the weekend we'll continue to feed in cloudier skies, and probably on saturday you're more likely to catch some rain. should be drier across more of the country on sunday and probably that bit brighter as well. this is early saturday, though, and it's a dull start across southern parts of england, perhaps south wales. a bit of rain and drizzle around here. a little bit brighter, though, as you move northwards for a while. in other parts of wales, the midlands, already some showers feeding in on those stronger west to north—westerly winds. a lot of showers to begin the day in northern ireland. in scotland, these showers to the north of scotland could be rather heavy for a time. most of the showers in scotland and northern ireland will be in the morning.

in the afternoon they become fewer and lighter. eastern scotland should see some sunshine poking through, a bit more shelter here. improving in the afternoon with some sunshine in north—east england. in between these drizzly rain bands that are moving towards the midlands and this rain that's stuck in the far south—west, we may get some unreliable breaks in the cloud for central, southern england, perhaps south wales. temperatures getting up to 16 or 17 degrees. not quite as warm as that, though, for the super league grand final. that's at old trafford. there will be some rain around here. it's going to be quite a dull and damp weekend on the whole across manchester. although this weather front is taking the rain away from the english channel. around the top of this flat area of high pressure, we're again drawing in a lot of cloud. we'll still have some of these drizzly showers around on sunday, especially in western scotland. many eastern parts of england and scotland, perhaps southern england and south wales, much drier and brighter. a little sunshine, temperatures similar to those on saturday. into the early part of next week and we're going to find

all our weather coming in from the atlantic. moving on more quickly over the coming few days, these systems weakening as they run across the uk. it means we're going to find the wind picking up from monday to wednesday, and the wettest weather is always going to be in the north—west. at this stage, not much rain in the south—east. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: america's battle over birth control. civil rights groups vow to fight the trump administration's new rules blocking access to free contraception. catalonia's government could be just days away from declaring independence from spain but its former leader warns

the region's not ready to go it alone. vigils in las vegas for the victims of the deadliest mass shooting in recent us history. police say they've chased more than 1,000 leads but the motive's still not known. a group campaigning to abolish nuclear weapons is awarded this year's nobel peace prize. and 30 years after the chernobyl disaster, sweden's wild boars are still contaminated with high levels of radiation.