i think that the referendum was, of course, an incredibly polarising time, as you say, samira. but actually what's interesting is, of course, we've had complaints from both sides and what we try to do, and i think when you look back and you look at the coverage, what we actually did do, was set about trying to explain what the choice was, trying to report out what the choice was. if you look back over the last few years, there have been an extraordinary number of democratic moments, two referendums, two general elections, a host of others around the world. i think one of the real lessons of the last few years is you can't predict what's going to happen. you can't rely on either political predictions or polls, and that means for us we have to do what we're here for, we've got to make sure that people get a sense of what the choice is. you mention the need for the bbc to provide informed news about that issue, and there was a big accusation from many viewers that the bbc was in fact, during the referendum, too timid in calling out things, notably statistical claims being made by one side or another that just weren't true. there's no question at all, the bbc and, as a news organisation,

a group of journalists, what we set out to do is to understand the world presented to us and make choices. in that there is no question at all that the bbc has to make judgments, and we do. i suppose that on the issue of statistics, the specific question you're asking about numbers, actually, we made a very clear choice to try and challenge those numbers, question those numbers, and more than that, we didn't do it in a sort of ad hoc way, we took something called reality check, right, which was our system for fact checking, we really increased the resources, the number of people working on it and we've made that a permanent part of the way in which we cover politics and policy. so, rather than stepping back from analysing statistics and numbers, we've actually stepped into it. with hindsight, should the bbc have done representation of different political views differently?

we've had many complaints from some viewers over the years about, for example, too much nigel farage. so, i think it's a really good and important issue, this, and one that we spend an enormous amount of time thinking about. so, if you got into the team, for example, on question time, which would be a good place to start, we are really careful in trying to think about where we hold the programme, so we get the best possible spread of audiences, who's on the panel, notjust in the context of who's on the panel on a particular thursday night, but who's on the panel over the course of a year, over the course of an entire political or electoral cycle. so, we do really think about it a great deal. and actually if you look over time, if you look over all of the bbc, what we call output, all of the bbc programmes, it's something that we think really carefully about. actually, if it's all right with you, i think there's something different that is really worth thinking about.

it's not about the representation of political parties, it's about the representations of views and personal points of view that are not necessarily captured by political parties but are captured by groups of people come individuals who feel as though their voice should be heard on the bbc. one of the things we've really tried to do is change that, too. trust in bbc news has been eroded under your watch, hasn't it? well, actually, it moves, so the truth is with trust, it moves. i think that obviously i arrived here on the back of savile and mcalpine, and those were big issues facing the bbc and confidence in bbc news. actually, that trust and confidence was significantly restored. but you're right, there's also a very profound argument going on around trust in the media generally in the light of what's happening politically. i don'tjust mean party politically, i don'tjust mean brexit and trump, i mean the extent to which people feel as though they're seen by, if you like, the system.

by politicians, by the media. in your resignation letter, you said you were going to set up a media company with a clear point of view. does that mean you think the bbc‘s aim of impartial news isn't working in the age of fake news? no, no, it doesn't, it means exactly the opposite, it means that the bbc‘s offer is working and should be what it is, which is impartial, but not necessarily taking a position. the public funds, we are funded by the licence fee payer, and everyone who pays the licence fee, i think, has a decent expectation that the bbc should operate in such a way that it reports what's happening but doesn't take a position. doesn't take a stand in the way in which newspapers or websites or other individuals might do. no, actually, i really believe in it. if you look at the bbc‘s trust, the bbc trust levels are so much higher than any other news organisation. that's the simple fact. and we still have to keep

on working on trust, but it is the thing that is the most impressive about the bbc and the public‘s relationship with the bbc. the first female political editor was employed under your watch, laura kuenssberg. why do you think she has been getting unprecedented levels of vitriol and hatred 7 i don't know, i think it's shameful that she is, because she is an unbelievably impressive journalist. she is one of the most extraordinary journalists i've ever worked with. if you look at just the thoughtfulness, the diligence and the quality of the work, i'm just amazed that people are so personal, even if they don't like the politics they see in front of them. the fact they're willing to attack laura, the fact they're willing to do that, ifind is really shocking, and is bad for the way in whichjournalism is conducted and public debate. so, all i can say is that i know a few people do this. i do also have to say that i'm in a happy position that many people come up to me and say what an extraordinary

job she's doing. we get lots of complaints from viewers that the bbc is anti—jeremy corbyn and focused on labour party divisions. do you agree that the bbc has collectively failed on the whole to treat him fairly and seriously? no, i don't think that, although i do think there is a really interesting lesson in the coverage ofjeremy corbyn. there was obviously great disquiet, great opposition to him within the parliamentary labour party. and we reported that, we reported obviously notjust the opposition to him, but the efforts that were made to get rid of him. there were leadership contests that were precisely about that. the question is, did we get that mix right alongside the mix of changes that were happening within the membership of the local labour party, and people who were not members? so, i would say the in course of the 2017 general election, we really did capture that mood. if you go and you look at the way in which we were covering jeremy corbyn's rallies, we were the people saying the polls

might say x, but look what's happening in terms of the rallies. we also, i like to think, really got to grips with the questions that were the heart ofjeremy corbyn's proposal to the country in the nature of the manifesto. once again trying to examine the choice, rather than the horse race. but there is a question which is, from the time thatjeremy corbyn was elected through to 2017, there are obviously changes within some of those constituency labour party... parts of the constituency labour party, and a politics element of that that is also really interesting. but also to the mood of certain parts of the electorate, and particularly young people. and getting to that and making sure we continue to get to that i think is really important. briefly, do you have any regrets? oh, yeah, i'm sure i have a fair few. i'm not sure that newswatch is the most brilliant place to, sort of, unburden myself of all of them. i think it is. licence fee payers... all right, let's have a go at it. i think that the...

the biggest issues i've got are the one i raise about how are we going to change an organisation when the behaviour of people around news is changing so fast? so, that's a long way of saying, we still have huge audiences for the 6pm and 10pm news. the today programme, 5 live and newsbeat. yet we can also see people changing the way in they consume news. are we moving fast enough to make those changes? and notjust in terms of the devices, also the way we tell stories. your successor, fran unsworth, is an internal candidate, which some might say reflects the decision to go a different way for the bbc. do you have any advice for her? well, i chose fran when ijoined as my deputy, and she has been an extraordinary person to work with. for people who don't know her, fran has worked at the bbc for pretty much her entire career and knows and understands it. most recently she was running the bbc world service. what you see with fran

is an incredibly thoughtful manager of people. a really intelligentjudge of news, and a fantastic ambassador for the bbc. but most of all, she has the capacity to enable great people to do exceptional work. and when you are the director of news and current affairs, that's the thing you really want to do, it's not what you do. the leadership of the organisation is enabling other people to do great things and no—one does that better in my experience, than fran. so i think she will be a brilliant director of news and current affairs. i've loved working with her and a great many people in the bbc feel the same way. thank you, james harding. thank you very much. and that's all from us this week. if you want to share your thoughts on whatjames harding had to say or any aspect of bbc news and current affairs, you can call us on... or email... you can find us on twitter... and do have a look at our website for previous interviews.

the address for that is... we're off now till the new year, but do join us again onjanuary 5th. until then, from all of us on the programme, have a very merry christmas and a happy new year. it is going to be quite chilly first thing on saturday, certainly a good frost around. but the weather will turn milder over the next couple of days. in fact, by the time we get to sunday, i suspect double—figure temperatures across the south of the uk. at the moment there is a dip in thejetstream. that's when cold air comes in from the north. here, we start to see a south—westerly flow of air, which will push the weather front and cloud in our direction and this area of milder air will be in place across the uk by the time we get to sunday. but saturday is still going to be quite a cold day across most of the uk. and the cold snap is

still not quite over. in fact, look at this. we're still getting weather watcher pictures with nice, snowy scenes across the uk, mostly across the hills now. so first thing on saturday morning, a widespread frost across the country. these are the city temperatures. outside, in rural areas, it will be much colder. even as low as —6. saturday morning start off on a beautiful, crisp note, through plymouth and bournemouth, all the way to brighton and dover. the midlands also nice and sunny, but crisp temperatures around. —i in nottingham. freezing across most of yorkshire and into scotland as well. we start to see slightly milder air at this stage getting into parts of northern ireland. on the whole, a nice start to the day, but there will be a change on the way later in the morning on saturday. in fact, clouds will be increasing and it might turn cloudy across wales and maybe around merseyside, into the west midlands and the south—west. here, at times, it could rain. the best of the sunshine in the east and the south—east

and the far southern counties. then the change happens to that milder weather through the course of saturday night into sunday. the weather fronts comes off the atlantic, we develop a south—westerly wind. so that milder air will arrive through the early hours of sunday and for many of us sunday is going to be at least starting off on a cloudy, damp note, if not wet note in many areas. quite breezy too for a time. we could even see gale force winds across the far north. look at the temperatures — back up to double figures, even in scotland. the extreme still hanging onto around six degrees. that damp weather will last right through the course of sunday but by the time we get to monday it looks like things will be drying out. a little bit of a dip in the temperature. so into next week, it looks like the weather will dry out but it's still going to stay relatively on the mild side. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers

in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: south africa's governing anc is preparing to vote for a new leader to replace president jacob zuma. eu leaders confirm that brexit negotiations can move on to the next stage, but they warn the talks will be even harder. austria's conservative party agrees to form a coalition with the far—right freedom party. it follows october's election, dominated by europe's migration crisis. wildfires continue to burn out of control in california, scorching an area larger than new york city and paris combined. a firefighter has died. and, with christmas just around the corner, this could be