the his tenure coming to an end. the tea m his tenure coming to an end. the team will be eternally grateful to him for thejob he has done over the last six years. they wish him the best of luck as he returns to club 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 we re bloodless transition. some people were unimpressed. bbc world news later apologised and a spokesperson said... on wednesday borisjohnson 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. asking michael gove about nazanin zaghari-ratcliffe. what was she doing when she went to iran?” 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 stress, there is no reason why nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe should be in prison in iran as far as any of us 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 journalists that has been grabbed by the iranianjudicially 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

borisjohnson said rights. that exchange, and what boris johnson said about rights. that exchange, and what borisjohnson 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 sta ke the withdrawal bill reaching its stake in the house of commons. it is pa rt 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 fa ce — offs 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 shejoins me now. the biggest complaint we get is about perceived bias, a sense that bbc reporting is co nsta ntly 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 myjob 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. wejust don't speak about brexit —— michel barnier. we just don't have that same barnier. we just don't have that sa m e a ccess 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 ourjob but believe me, because it is my job, iam but believe me, because it is my job, i am doing but believe me, because it is my job, iam doing itand 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. ifeel your 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 ? 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 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 ina 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 really. on the one hand, if i have todoaq really. on the one hand, if i have to doa oand really. on the one hand, if i have todoaqandaon really. on the one hand, if i have to doa qanda on got 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 again next week. goodbye. already chilly out there, close to freezing in parts of east anglia and essex and in southern england we had the best of the sunshine. tomorrow the best of the sunshine. tomorrow the sunshine will be across scotland whereas southern england will be cloudy. still some showers pushing into scotland through the night. wintry at times, a strong wind, a few showers for northern ireland and northern england. frost will not be as northern england. frost will not be as widespread as last night that there will be pockets of it out

there will be pockets of it out there particular in scotland and central, eastern and southern england. what can we expect in the morning? a lot of sunshine in scotla nd morning? a lot of sunshine in scotland through the day. still blustery showers in the far north and the northern isles. northern ireland, mainly dry but a lot of cloud. early showers working southwards across northern england but sunshine will come out after that and plenty of blue sky. early sunshine in the east and south—east will not last, the cloud in wales and south—west england, some of it quite mild in the morning, it will stretch further east with a bit patchy rain with it. not too much but some heavy bursts in south wales and south—west england. cloudy and damp in the afternoon, some of my other. —— are some of us milder. single thing —— single figure temperatures again for most of us. into saturday night, outbreaks of

rain in parts of wales and southern england, allowing clear skies across much of the uk. the frost will take hold going into sunday morning. quite widespread and shop in places and at other temperatures fall lower away from town centres to below freezing. we will see the sunshine on sunday in the east, not so cold for northern ireland and wales and the south—west but cloudy with patchy rain, trying to push east but only making limited progress on sunday and for most of us temperatures in single figures. cloud and rain will move north east sunday night into monday and called a rare in scotland means that when monday begin there could be some snow in scotland and perhaps not just on the hills. keep an eye on that through the weekend. whatever you're doing, you can find the forecast at bbc weather website. this is bbc news.

robert mugabe, the robert howley first time since the military takeover. a rally in support of the military‘s action has been called for saturday. that has been recalled from zanu—pf from being a leader of the country. we will be bringing you the country. we will be bringing you the latest from our correspondent. also coming up: the president of the reviewing counsel to the uk to speed up with the brexit talks. while good progress on citizens rights is being made, we need to see much more progress on ireland and on the financial settlement. president trump tweets about the