that phrase used there, witch hunt, was picked up by other viewers, including tom parkinson, who e—mailed: and eleanor in london asked: newsnight tackled this fraught topic with a special edition on wednesday, subtitled, to the 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 1st 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's 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: while m nardini told us: and paul summers wondered: well, to discuss this now, i'm joined by andrew roy, who's world editor for bbc news. thank you for coming on newswatch. most of the viewers who did complain said the bbc had been too favourable

to the pro—independence side, how do you respond? we haven't been. we've been physically in both locations, in madrid and barcelona, so we can put both points of view, our correspondents have always been careful to get pro and anti clips from protesters and politicians into their pieces. we've 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 story, they feel has given the impression that was a violent state crackdown on a popular independence movement and that's not fair. i think that's 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 a series of rallies in madrid and barcelona, both pro and anti independence, and we've 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 explainations, 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 maybe we need to 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've 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're giving you both sides of the story. we've done historical explainers on air, we've also brought in the issues about the economics around this independence movement and whether it would or wouldn't work, so we've tried as hard as we can to get across to the audience the complexities of it in a reduced television bulletin, but this issue has had an awful lot of air time. i think there's a particular challenge for television when you get passionate, colourful demonstrations wanting change, compared to what can seem a relatively grey argument, the government that wants to keep

things the same, does that leave viewers inevitably 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 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. so we do try to get the balance across, but also within the bulletins pieces we do. thank you. before we go, a little more of your reaction to how the bbc covered the news this week. on friday morning, one of the stories getting the headline treatment was this. and president trump's twitter account is closed for 11 minutes, and president trump's twitter account is closed for 11 minutes by a member of staff

on their last day. and andrew garner agreed with that: and finally, we mentioned last week complaints that bbc news should not have concerned itself with the trivial though amusing tale of president macron‘s dog urinating in a fireplace during a meeting at the elysee palace. well, we've had some feedback about that feedback, including this from liz stewart:

and that is all from us, thank you for all 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 us on 0370 0106 676 or e—mail us. you can find us on twitter and do have a look at our website. so that is all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage next week. goodbye. hello once again. the weekend is upon us, let us see if the weather is going to fit in with your plans, whatever they may be. the weekend certainly turning colder eventually across all parts

of the british isles. eventually many of us will get to sunny spells and showers, but for some we'll have to contend with a rather wet start to the weekend, especially so across england and wales because yes we have the weather front getting in across scotland and northern ireland, but i suspect it's this cloud coming in from the south that will be the thing that many of you notice first up as the two weather systems combine to produce just a lot of rain across a good part of england and wales to start off the day. especially here concentrated down through lincolnshire, east anglia and into the east midlands, parts of the south—east and away across the channel. further to the west, the rain becoming a wee bit more patchy and you've really got to get up into scotland or northern ireland to see a brighter start to the day, a glorious start i would have thought in the eastern side of scotland but from the word go, showers aplenty in northern and western parts of scotland and into the western side of northern ireland. slowly, oh, so slowly,

as we get on through the morning towards lunchtime, into the early part of the afternoon, yes, it will be that late until we see the last of that persistent rain getting towards the east anglia coast and getting away from kent. with somewhat brighter skies following in towards the midlands and across the south—west as well, where we will keep a peppering of showers for a good portion of the evening, so if you've got plans for bonfires and fireworks, across many northern and western parts, you'll have to contend with quite a noticeable wind, so safety first of course, and the peppering of showers, drier i would think further east and this is how we start sunday. the showers there in northern and western parts but you get the sense there are fewer of them. if you're holding off with your firework plans until sunday evening, many more of you i think will be dry by this stage although there will be a few showers flirting with the eastern shores.

underneath the clearing skies, a widespread frost to start the new day on monday, certainly in the countryside, but there is a sign of a change. after that dry enough start for many parts of the british isles, eventually we”ll bring weather systems in from the atlantic so it's a combination not only of wet weather but also quite windy weather getting into northern and western scotland through northern ireland. generally speaking the further south and east you are the drier, finer and brighter the day will be. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: while thousands protest in catalonia, belgium receives an arrest warrant for the independence leader carles puigdemont. first stop hawaii. president trump is on his way to asia, with north korea high on the agenda spared jail by a militaryjudge — the american soldier who abandoned his post in afghanistan. and, police in new york say they have a viable case against the disgraced hollywood producer, harvey weinstein.