hello, welcome to newswatch with me, samira ahmed. has bbc news been too quick to accept the british government's narrative of what is happening in syria? and how does middle east editor jeremy bowen face the challenge of getting to the truth about that country's civil war? who is doing what to whom in syria, and what the west can or should do about it, has been much argued over in the seven years since pro—democracy protests sparked the civil war there. the debate has been particularly impassioned since saturday's air strikes by the us, the uk and france in retaliation for the suspected chemical weapons attack two weeks ago by president assad's forces. and part of the discussion has focused on how the bbc has reported that alleged attack, and the military response to it. brian tickle describes himself as... max agreed, e—mailing us to say...

well, one guest who did provide a sceptical perspective was former head of the royal navy lord west. speaking to annita mcveigh on the news channel on monday, he said the sources for the supposed chemical attack were not neutral, warned that we have had some bad experiences on intelligence before, and added the idea of president assad unleashing a chemical attack on douma seemed extraordinary. he'd had a long, long, hard slog, slowly capturing

the whole area of the city. and then just before he goes in and takes it all over, apparently he decides to have a chemical attack. itjust doesn't ring true. we know that the russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov, said on friday, or accused a western state on friday of perhaps fabricating evidence in douma or somehow being involved with what happened in douma, given that we are in an information war with russia on so many fronts, do you think perhaps it is inadvisable to be stating this publicly, given your position and your profile? isn't there a danger that you are muddying the waters? that question was considered inappropriate by some of those watching, with caitlinjohnston reacting like this. and others agreed.

harry carson tweeted. .. well, we put those points to bbc news, and they told us... well, one of those with the task of providing some clarity on syria's civil war through reports from the region, or, as he has been doing this week, through analysis from here in london, is the bbc‘s middle east editorjeremy bowen. and hejoins me now. welcome back to newswatch. the last time we spoke it was also about syria. how hard is it now to get the truth of what has been happening in syria? well, it is always hard, it has always been hard, to be honest. it was pretty hard before the war as well because of the nature of the regime. but since the war started, it's always difficult. if you are working in daily news, or sometimes when i am in syria we might spend a week putting together one piece that runs,

you've just got to do your best. dig through things as much as you can, use basicjournalistic tools like your eyes and your ears to try to find out what is going on. but, no, it's not easy, it's hard. one of the other things that seems to have changed over the last few years is the role of social media. there are concerns about governments using it as a way of asserting their version of events. what impact does it have on your reporting? well, you know... maybe i shouldn't admit this, i don't look at social media that much. i keep an eye on twitter. i put things on twitter. but i think that social media has changed our job. things fly around the world much more quickly, and social media is a big part of that. but i don't think that the essence of journalism has changed. you still need to find out what's been going on, you still need to be accurate, you still need to be timely. you still need to be fair.

your colleague, lyse doucet, is out there now in syria. you have, of course, been many times as well. when you are on the ground, inevitably, you probably find yourself embedded with either the syrian government or the rebels. is it possible to get the whole picture that way? well, when you do syria, you basically either do the rebels or you do the government. because to do the government's side you need a visa, issued in beirut, the syrian embassy. if they find out that you have been working on the rebel‘s side, you will get blacklisted and you will not get another visa. the thing about daily news is that it's a snapshot of what is going on. you really do your best to try to make that snapshot as sharp and as true as possible. but it's sometimes not the last word, because if it is a breaking story, we might have very little time to put it together. so the key thing is to be accurate. don't say things you don't know. try to give people a flavour of what it is like to be there. but, most of all, it's got to be real, it's got to be true. there has been, or there have been,

some significant voices, including lord west, former head of the royal navy, who said that there is some doubt about the chemical attack. what would you say? well, until there are definitive scientific tests from the site, saying, yes, we found traces of whatever it may be, chlorine or sarin, or nothing, then we don't know. up to now, it has been governments saying, "yeah, we've got intelligence, we've got information." and i must say, they must have very efficient intelligence services if they can get stuff out of eastern ghouta that quickly and get it analysed. but maybe they have men on the inside, who knows? as well as that, there's the evidence of testimony from people. and there's also the pictures. i've seen lots of them, i've seen all of them that i could, which showed lots and lots of dead people, lots of children dead as well, with foam all around their mouths,

which tends to be a sign of having used chemical weapons. those scenes were so realistic that i would find it very hard to believe they could be faked. now, maybe something else caused that. but no, that is why we have been quite careful to use phrases like suspected chemical attack. we haven't been saying, yeah, it's a chemical attack. because some viewers feel that the bbc has been too quick to treat it from the british government's assertions? i don't think we are treating from the british government's assertions. i think that if you get reports and testimony from people that there are possibly dozens dead because of an attack, and there were clouds of some kind of white smoke, people were dying foaming at the mouth, you've got to take those kinds of things seriously. considering the track record in that particular country. we are very sceptical, i am very sceptical, about what governments say. really, believe me. if viewers look at our scripts, we are careful with the language we use.

do you have any frustrations about the coverage of syria? yeah, of course. access is one. sometimes it's very hard to get visas to get in. sometimes we wait months. answer — i haven't got a visa! so, yeah, access, visas, ability to move around when you are there. and there are other kinds of frustrations as well. i get frustrated. i have an ongoing dialogue here, a long—running dialogue in this building between myself and programme editors, which frankly has been going on in different versions for about 30 years. which is, i think we should show more of the horror. because i think people need to see that realism. the policy here, though, is that we should be a lot more considerate of people's feelings and not upset them. my argument is, you know, and it's an amiable argument that we have here, but my argument is that you see people watching video games,

and there's a lot of shooting going on and it's completely unrealistic because it's a video game. and you see people watching tv dramas, shooting and killing, and it's completely unrealistic because it's a tv drama. but if you see real shooting, and real killing, and the effect sometimes high explosives have on humans, and the suffering that it causes, then you get closer to the essence of what being in a war is. and i actually do think that if people have a better idea of that, they might be even more... they might find it even more abhorrent than they already do. jeremy bowen, thank you. just time before we go to mention some reaction to the bbc‘s coverage of a story it's very much involved in itself. sir cliff richard has been in the high court this week, suing the bbc after it named him and broadcast helicopter footage of police searching his flat in august 2014. that footage has been shown again, several times,

over the past few days — prompting angela dylan to write... and david metcalfe echoed that. thank you very much for all your comments this week. if you would like to tell us your opinions about bbc news and current affairs output, or even appear on the programme, please do ring us on 0370 010 6676, or e—mail newswatch@bbc. co. uk. you can also post your thoughts on twitter, @newswatchbbc, and do have a look at previous interviews we've recorded on our website, bbc. co. uk/newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week.

goodbye. good evening. temperatures have not been quite as high as yesterday but we still have plenty of warm sunshine, a very decent day for many. not for all. i sunshine, a very decent day for many. not forall. iam sunshine, a very decent day for many. not for all. i am sure there isa many. not for all. i am sure there is a pleasant sea breeze around on the isle of wight for the sea breeze brought on the mist as well, near cornwall and affected other irish sea coasts as well. generally speaking, the heat we had in recent days started to recede and a cooler, fresh westerly atlantic breeze will ta ke fresh westerly atlantic breeze will take over by the end of the weekend. this mist and low cloud remains this evening on the irish sea coasts. we could see some developing inland as well through the night. there could be more around tomorrow morning, for example. hopefully, it will start to clear from the west. a chilly night, three and four mokoena glens of

scotla nd three and four mokoena glens of scotland and the north of england. as we move into tomorrow, this gradual change or downward trend of the temperatures will continue. in fa ct, the temperatures will continue. in fact, throughout the weekend. the added convocation of a risk of a sundry breakdown. fine and dry weather for scotland and northern england to start with, but the chance of some showers started to develop in the south, heading northwards. initially quite light as the mist and fog clears. as the heat builds, they could quite and tense. a warm day for many parts, 16 or 17, well above average for the time of year and into the 20s. that is barely 10 degrees above average. that could culminate in nasty, slow—moving thunderstorms as the day wears on. any evening activities could be at risk of disruption because of a deluge. those thundery showers are likely to make their way northwards and eastwards with time. that is a risk through tomorrow evening and overnight in particular. then the warm air eventually get swept away by the cold front moving in on sunday. it does look more u nsettled in on sunday. it does look more unsettled from the north and west as the low pressure approaches. eventually, this cooler, fresher

weather sweeps eastwards. for much of the day we keep the same type of air across southern and eastern areas. still warm and quite muggy. still dry and bright weather, with rain mid—afternoon. . luke mcgrath scotla nd rain mid—afternoon. . luke mcgrath scotland and northern ireland, showers or longer spells of rain at the low—pressure approaches. temperatures will be considerably lower, down by 5 degrees. after that rain passes through, fine and dry conditions. it could be one of the warmest london marathons. stay tuned to the forecast. this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm. commonwealth leaders agree that prince charles will, one day, succeed the queen as head of the organisation. his royal highness has been a proud supporter of the commonwealth for more than four decades and has spoken passionately about the organisation's unique diversity and it is fitting that one day he will continue the work of his mother, her majesty the queen.

after nearly 22 years in charge, arsene wenger will step down as arsenal manager at the end of the season. as the clear up in salisbury continues, government scientists warn the decontamination of nine hot spots could take months. the swedish dj avicii who collaborated with artists such as madonna and coldplay, has died at the age of 28. also coming up.