and eleanor london asked: newsnight tackled this fraught topic with a special editionn on wednesday, subtitled, to dismay of some viewers, the problem with men. good evening. tonight, we want to reflect the new national conversation about an age—old problem. sex, power, abuse and allegation. have the rules changed, are we redefining what we are prepared to put up with and how do we feel about calling people guilty in such a vocal public way? edward talbot was one of the viewers who got in touch to respond to the programme, writing: the political crisis in spain started just over a month ago, with the first of october referendum

on self determination in catalonia. that saw a yes vote of 90%, but was boycotted by many of those opposed, and the spanish government said the vote and the idea of independence was unconstitutional. last friday, the regional government declared an independent republic and madrid promptly dismissed the entire catalan cabinet, dissolved the regional parliament, and appointed the spanish deputy prime minister to run the region temporarily. the sacked catalan president, carles puigdemont, has been ordered to appear in court, accused of rebellion, and has said he won't return from belgium without a guarantee of a fair trial. bbc news has been following the twists and turns of this saga. this is the people facing down the police. these are riot police who have been drafted in from other parts of spain. but their heavy—handed tactics today appear to be making deep divisions in this region worse. all round here catalans

are singing their national anthem. the national anthem they now believe belongs to their independent republic, separate from the spanish state. there are so many questions, what will the spanish government now do? but for now this crowd just wants to celebrate. no doubting the passion of this crowd. belting out "long live spain", along barcelona's main boulevards, these are catalans who don't want independence. who reject the independence declaration made last week. it has been a complex and confused dispute, and some viewers have detected what they feel is a lack of balance in coverage, one spaniard living in lancaster thought the catalan independence protestors were portrayed

as brave and principled, while the spanish state in trying to stop an illegal referendum and secession from spain is seen as acting like franco and oppressing the people. while m nardini told us: and paul summers wondered: well, to discuss this now i am joined by andrew roy who is world editorfor bbc news, thank you for coming on newswatch. most of the viewers who complained said the bbc had been too favourable to the pro independence side, how do you respond? we haven't been, we have been physically in both locations, in madrid and barcelona, so we can put both points of view, our correspondents have been careful to get pro and anti clips from protesters and politicians

into their pieces. we have been trying throughout to be absolutely rigorous, in being impartial and objective, and putting both sides of the argument. i think the concern is that the headline coverage, which is how most viewers encounter the stories they feel has given the stories, they feel has given the impression that was a violent state crackdown on a popular independence movement and that is not fair. i think that is incorrect as well. there was violence at the very beginning round the illegal referendum, we reported that the referendum was illegal, we showed what was happening in the polling stations, we also reported afterwards the disparity in figures about the numbers arrested, people injured by both sides. since then, there hasn't been much violence, there has only been series of rallies, in madrid and barcelona, both pro and anti independence and we have been reporting that, reporting what the politicians have been saying, and giving both sides air time.

do you think you did enough to explain why the referendum was illegal? we've put online an awful lot of explainers, we have pieces about the constitution of spain, we have got pieces about the devolved powers of catalonia, we have the history of the two sides in this dispute. if your audiences are saying they still don't understand it may be we need do more, but we've certainly gone out of our way to try to explain what is a complex situation and anyone who wants more depth, that is all available online. the trouble is, audiences, i think reasonably can say we can't be expected to go hunting for every piece of background online, the bulletins are what a lot of people watch and that is what they are complaining about. and perhaps in reports, that tend to be two or three minutes long, it becomes simplified as a tale of right and wrong. we haven't been doing just two or three minutes on this story, we have been doing much, much more than that, throughout the whole dispute, and like i say,

we have also been pointing out here is a correspondent in madrid, here is a correspondent in barcelona, we are giving you both sides of the story. we have done historical explainers on air, we have also brought in the issues about the economics around this independence movement, and whether it would or wouldn't work, so we have tried as hard as we can to get across to the audience the complexities of it, in a reduced television bulletin, but this programme, this issue has had an awful lot of air time. i think there is a particular challenge for television when you get passionate colourful demonstrations wanting changed, compared to what consumers a relatively grey argument, the government that wants to keep things the same, does that leave you with an unbalanced impression? you saw from those clips, that the people who are in favour of unity are just as passionate and waving just as many flags, confusingly similarly coloured to the catalan flags,

but they are as passionate in putting their views across. we covered those rallies, we covered them when they are in barcelona that and when they are in madrid. and we also go out into the crowd and get the voices supporting the rallies and also the voices down the sides of the rallies, who are possibly not supporting that point of view, supporting that point of view. so we do try to get the balance across time, but also within the bulletins pieces we do. thank you.

you can find us on twitter and do have a look at our website. the home counties towards logggg gg a. j§% . western “z-.. well where it will ffv eeféwhere ireland, :— fl :’of § of snow g the of the highlands, this rain tops of the highlands, this rain though, takes a while to clear away

from east anglia in the south—east. it stays cloudy through the afternoon, otherwise sunshine invades. showers mainly round the coastal areas and up to the north—west where it will feel chilly in that wind. that wind will don't feed showers into western parts of the uk overnight. otherwise clear skies for any bonfire parties and fireworks. it will be a chillier start, but fewer showers, fireworks. it will be a chillier start, but fewershowers, but fireworks. it will be a chillier start, but fewer showers, but they will tend to migrate to the south—east of england and then tend to fade away in the north. so more such sunshine to come but it will be a colder day, temperatures about eight to ten degrees, and with clear skies overnight the temperatures will fall away low enough to give us widespread frost in rural areas early on monday morning, underneath that ridge of high pressure, running into that we have the weather fronts arriving in the north—west, an active band of rain, heavy rain coming into northern ireland, and western scotland, slowly through the day on monday, ahead of it the wind

beginning to really pick up through these irish sea coast, further east though, lighter wind, it these irish sea coast, further east though, lighterwind, it should be these irish sea coast, further east though, lighter wind, it should be a fine day with some sunshine. this is bbc news, i'm lukwesa barak. the headlines at eight: labour's kelvin hopkins categorically denies allegations of inappropriate behaviour, as his party faces criticism for his promotion months after he was rebuked for sexually harassing an activist. tonight, labour is also investigating a formal complaint against former shadow cabinet member clive lewis — who denies any wrongdoing. scotland yard is investigating an allegation that the hollywood actor kevin spacey sexually assaulted a young man in london. an official arrest warrant is issued for the ousted catalan leader, who's remaining defiant. an army sergeant accused of attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute gives evidence for the first time. also ahead this hour:

two delivery drivers are attacked with acid in london.