as anthony says himself. getting a clear view, and only by getting that could we see how many officers were involved, and viewers could make a judgment about whether they felt the search was appropriate, in terms of its size and scale. helicopter footage on the 10:00 news and the 6:00 news that evening was only 21 seconds of coverage, and there was less than a minute of live helicopter coverage right towards the end of the search, in the afternoon. so we used a very restrained portion of the helicopter. the investigation was later dropped because of lack of evidence and sir cliff richard was never arrested. the singer then sued the bbc, accusing it of invading his privacy. on wednesday, mrjustice newey found in his favour, and hundreds of viewers told the bbc they agreed with that decision. one of them recorded this video for us. it was explained that the coverage of the event was given the green light to proceed, as it was deemed to be in the public interest. being a fully paid—up member of the public,

at no time did i feel it was in my interest. far from it. as a licence—payer, i strongly objected to the use of a helicopter hovering above sir cliff richard's home, streaming live pictures of police with gloved hands rifling through his belongings. how can this possibly be in the public interest? this is no justification whatsoever. the judge told the bbc to pay an initial £210,000 in damages, as well as costs, saying... knowing sir cliff richard was under investigation might be of interest to the gossip—mongers, but does not contribute materially to the public interest. he said the broadcast showed a significant degree of sensationalism, and cited the bbc‘s decision to enter the coverage for a scoop of the year award as an aggravating factor in hisjudgment. the bbc did not agree with the finding. thejudge has also made clear that, even if there'd been no footage of the search and the story had less prominent, the very naming of sir cliff would have been unlawful. this creates a significant shift

against press freedom. this means police investigations of searches of people's homes could go unreported and unscrutinised. it will put decision—making about naming individuals in the hands of police over the public‘s right to know. well, nobody from the bbc was available to elaborate for us today, but i am joined by the legal commentator and former bbc correspondent joshua rozenberg, and also by one of the many viewers who contacted us on the issue, diana. diana, first of all, what did you think of the bbc‘s defence? my issues were twofold. 0ne, ifelt the initial coverage with the helicopter was incredibly intrusive. and i mean, surely, laws of trespass would suggest that you shouldn't fly over somebody‘s house taking photographs. but the other thing was that the implication was that sir cliff richard was guilty, before any police action

had confirmed that. and so he was damned even when he was innocent. he was entitled to privacy before he was charged with anything, and the bbc did not do its due diligence before making this a headline item, and basically going for this sensational aspect of it. joshua, a lot of people thought the bbc did get it wrong at the time. what is your view on thejudge's decision? well, the judge said he wasn't making new law. he was simply applying the human rights act, which was passed by parliament 20 years ago. from the bbc's point of view, they might have thought that it was a new law, because until now broadcasters and journalists have thought that they can report a police raid, they can report that somebody is the subject of an investigation. well, no, said thejudge, you can't do that anymore. that's part of the right of privacy that a person has under the human rights act, and that's what the bbc will have

to observe in the future. but that's not quite right. the judge said journalists can cite the public interest but he says there was not one here? he said you have to balance an individuals right of privacy against the broadcaster's right to freedom of expression. these are the two conflicting rights in the human rights convention articles. and having made that balance, he decided to come down in favour of sir cliff richard. he said sir cliff's right to privacy outweighed the bbc‘s right to freedom of expression. there may be cases in the future where the balance would come the other way, so it's not going to be a total ban on naming people who are the subject of inquiries, but i think journalists are going to think twice before they do it in future. i think there is a very clear red line here. they should not name anybody until the police have reason to prosecute. i guess the bbc will probably argue that, in the interests of other witnesses coming forward, the very fact that a named person is in the public eye will bolster the case,

if you like, for the prosecution. however, once you have made allegations of that nature against somebody, you cannot unmake them. you know, whilst the ruling in court has completely exonerated sir cliff, the story remains. and nothing, no apology, will actually take that harm away. joshua, the bbc‘s push for an exclusive on this, you know, they entered that coverage for an award. they led on the story, the helicopter. as a former correspondent of the bbc, how do you feel about that whole editorial aspect of it? if it was the right story to tell at the right time, then that was the right way to tell it. nothing wrong with illustrating it in a way that's going to draw attention to it, and to demonstrate what's going on. it's very difficult to cover a police raid on television from outside a brick wall. and therefore you can see why

broadcasters thought, if we have access to a helicopter, this will be a way of bringing the story alive. but the broader point is whether it was proper to do with the story in the first place, and the judge said the bbc would have been wrong even if it had been somebody like you reading the story in the studio with a still picture of sir cliff richard behind your face. but of course, it wasn't the only way they covered it. they did do that extra coverage. diana, the bbc is considering appealing against this ruling. what would you say to bbc bosses? 0n the one hand, fran unsworth was copious in her apology to the cliff richard. however, to then come out and say we're considering an appeal undermines the apology, does it not? you know, it makes it less sincere, and it's kind of unfinished business, because what that's actually saying is, judge, we think you got this wrong. it is possible, isn't it, though, for the bbc to say,

we're sorry for what sir cliff richard went through, but we thought we were doing the right thing at the time, and we think that we should be allowed to name people who are the subject of investigations. don't forget, four years ago we had had all these other people who were convicted or charged of child six cases, particularly jimmy savile, which the bbc failed to report at the time. so you can see why the bbc might think it is in the public interest to report allegations of this kind, even though they may be sorry for what sir cliff richard went through. you raised a very interesting point, and gloria hunniford, who is a close friend of sir cliff, observed when i saw her interviewed this morning that his issue was never freedom of the press, it was invasion of privacy. and you're quite right in that, if we didn't have the press to keep, sadly, both our politicians and police in order, cases like rotherham might never have come to light. but we have a principle in this country of being innocent until proven guilty,

and that seems to have kind of been ignored. thank you both. finally, this weekend sees the last ever edition of the sunday politics as a network programme, though there will still be half—hour programmes for each of the nations and english regions. it's part of a series of changes to the bbc‘s output from westminster, which also sees the daily politics replaced by a new daily programme, politics live, and a reduction in broadcasting by the bbc parliament channel. behind the moves, the bbc says, is a greater emphasis on digital and social coverage, and the need to make cost savings of £18 million by 2022. but some members of the audience are unhappy, including christine parsons. and craig walker

was also displeased. well, in response to that, bbc news told us... thank you for all your comments this week. we're off the air for a few weeks now, but please continue to share with us your opinions on bbc news and current affairs. you can call us and share with us your opinions.

and do have a look at our website. that's all from us. we'll be back after our summer break to hear more of your thoughts about the bbc‘s coverage. goodbye. hello. some areas were lucky enough to have some useful rain on friday. 0thers, though, just had the cloud, and hardly anything fell from it. and it is looking mainly dry for the weekend, as this nose of high pressure builds in behind that rain—bearing weather system clearing away south—eastwards. for early risers for saturday morning, a lot of cloud around, rather misty and murky in places, and for england and wales at any stage in the day, anywhere, there's the chance of a hit—and—miss shower. though most will avoid them and stay dry with warm sunny spells developing. warm anywhere where you get to see sunshine. not a lot of cloud around for northern scotland and north—east scotland, and thickening further later in the day. this is a picture at ii:00pm

in the afternoon, south to north across the uk, and at this stage parts of southern england and south wales most favoured for an isolated shower, though most stay dry. and again, warm sunny spells in england and wales, southern and eastern scotland. more cloud for northern ireland, western scotland, especially into the north—west, where the breeze is picking up, and a bit of patchy, light rain is starting to move in. but at the golf at carnoustie, as the open continues, a lot of cloud around particularly early in the day. i think some sunny spells will develop. it looks like it'll be a sunnier and warmer day on sunday, but at that stage it looks like the breeze will be perhaps more significant. now, as we go on through saturday evening and overnight, what showers have popped up in england and wales will die away. a few patches of mist and fog around, though most will be with clear spells. more cloud starting to filter into western scotland, and again there'll be a bit of patchy rain the further north you are, and a warmer night to come for scotland and northern ireland compared with friday night. and some spots into the high teens overnight, particularly in south—east england. into sunday then, and a weather

system moving in will give some patchy rain towards parts of northern and western scotland, perhaps later in the day into northern ireland, as the cloud feeds in from the north—west. breezier across northern scotland, compared with elsewhere. but, for much of south—east scotland and across england and wales, there will be more warm, sunny spells to come, and it's becoming very warm to hot once again, as those temperatures get close to 30 celsius across eastern and south—eastern england. now, early into next week, this weather system will bring some patchy rain through scotland and northern ireland. ahead of that, though, we draw up some even hotter air to england and wales, so the heatwave is absolutely back on. anywhere getting to see some sunshine next week will be very warm to hot, but again, it's got our weather system early on in the week affecting parts of scotland and northern england. highest temperatures in east and south—east england, in excess of 30 once again, and dry. hello and welcome to bbc news. broadcasting to viewers in north

america and around the world. i'm nkem ifejika. the headlines: reports donald trump's former lawyer recorded him just months before the us election. a tourist boat has sunk ina us election. a tourist boat has sunk in a river in missouri killing 17. the eu chief negotiator says there isa the eu chief negotiator says there is a progress is still work to be done. how is story is being told about the 2 million officers who