the damage that we, the people of ireland who voted to remain in the eu and who want to stay in the eu. we have ran out of time but thank you for that. that. thank you. now on bbc news it's time for newswatch, presented this week by shaun ley. this week by sh toi ley. this week by sh to newswatch. with me shaun lay. did bbc news give the right priority to last saturday's march supporting another eu referendum? and what news value like this deserve? also... i am notjust reading stuff out. i thought you wanted to interview me. did this interview show that the bbc has an anti—brexit bias? this is the weekend the uk was supposed to have been leaving the european union. the debate over whether or not it is a good idea continues unabated. one shade of

opinion was on display in central london last saturday, with a march and rally demanding another referendum. organisers claim more than one million people took part and describe it as one of the biggest protests in british history. we weren't told what brexit would look like because they didn't know, i'iow look like because they didn't know, now we know what brexit might be, we should be able to make an informed decision. although it led saturday's tea time and late bbc one bulletins and featured live on the news channel on saturday afternoon some felt the march wasn't given the attention it deserved by bbc new. charlotte objected, all you have shown is a little clip of crowds. this was an historic occasion and should have had full unedited coverage of all the speeches. and watching the following morning kim complained there was no mention of the put it to the people march. how can the nonu coverage bejustified? a smaller number had the opposite

perspective. if the bbc is supposed to be impartial why oh why is there endless coverage of campaign to stop brexit but little or no of the leave means brexit but little or no of the leave m ea ns leave brexit but little or no of the leave means leave march? that is a smaller scale march led by nigel farage was has taken two weeks to reach its destination, at westminster. it was featured on bbc news on the day it began. the audience was clearly divided over last weekend's coverage of the put to it the people rally, so of the put to it the people rally, so how does the bbc decide how much airtime the so how does the bbc decide how much air time the increasing number of demonstrations should receive? from the jilly january or yellow vest movement protesting for several months in france to the frequent demos across the uk on subjects including climate change supporters demand and expect media coverage. to what extent should the bbc comply with their wishes? one of those responsible is the bbc‘s uk news editor richard burgess. thank you

for coming into the studio. what are the criteria you use to determine what demonstrations to cover and how much coverage to give them?|j what demonstrations to cover and how much coverage to give them? i don't think there are exact criteria but i think there are exact criteria but i think there are a number of factors you take into consideration, scale is obviously one of them, which we saw with last weekend march was a major march with a lot of people on it. that is something you have to ta ke it. that is something you have to take into account. there are a number of other factors round, take into account. there are a number of otherfactors round, is this about a matter of national significance, is that live issue at the moment, and could the march lead to change in the future? so, you ta ke to change in the future? so, you take all those into account but there is the other factor, what else is going on in that day, what else is going on in that day, what else is happening? you mention scale and this is a contentious issue with marches in particular, last weekend, the organisers were saying they had more than one million people. the bbc said hundreds of thousands, how do you make that call?|j bbc said hundreds of thousands, how do you make that call? i don't think you can ever absolutely say how many people are on a march. by their very

nature they are fluid, people move round, they are over large area, it is almost impossible, the not impossible to give an exact number. we obviously have people on the ground who will make an assessment which is what we did at the weekend, and they were talking about how dentsly populated the march was, so we talked about hundreds of thousands, we talked in broad estimates, and then, on the figure ofa estimates, and then, on the figure of a million, which the organise itsers were were saying we attributed that to them. it can be very politically charged. one thinks of the trump inauguration, that became a serious issue about whether the media had distorted the number, down played then. you have to be careful. that is right. i think that is why we talk in broader term, and when there are more definitive figures we attribute them to the organisers although the metropolitan police didn't put a figure on it at the weekend, that is because they

recognise the difficulty of putting figures on and the political sensitivity round those figures. you said at the start one of the things that can affect coverage is what else is happening in the news, lots of other things it will get squeezed, if not it is easy to fill airtime squeezed, if not it is easy to fill air time with. that is a difficulty because you can spend the money, the resource, i mean, you are under obligation to have a live camera truck, producers to get money's worth for the license payer? not necessarily, there was no real issue at the weekend because of the size of the march, and the, the issue that it was addressing. what about more generally because lots of other demonstrations that the bbc cover, on the nhs or the tommy robinson outside salford? again, i think we make decisions baseded with criteria i talked about before, in terms of scale and whether it is an issue of national sniff cans and what happens

on the march as well. —— significance. there is a consideration. and then we will make a decision based on the news agenda that day, and some times we commit resources to stuff and it doesn't get on, and that is the business of news. i wonder what effect the referendum has had, because it has created a powerful sense of the will of the people, it is something politicians claim we are speaking for the will of the people on either side of the argument, the protestors also say the same. doesn't it perhaps require the bbc to develop more of a carefuljudgment on this because it is used so much, to be, if you like an emblem of a wider public feeling rather than just those people who have turned up on a particular day for a particular protest. i think you are right and we do our best to reflect the range of opinion around brexit. we know it is an extremely divisive issue, we know it is poll rising for many of the audience and one that people feel hugely passionately about and so feel hugely passionately about and so our feel hugely passionately about and so ouraim, as feel hugely passionately about and so our aim, as an impartial

broadcaster is to give air to those opinion, not to create a false balance but to fairly represent the views across the nation. what about other protest, i mentioned in introducing the yellow vest protests in paris, in particular, i mean they have been happening every weekend for months now, we covered them a lot on the news channel, some weekends they are fairly quiet protest, others like the one, they become much more news worthy themselves, ho do you make that call, for the bbc news injenna is a difficultjudgment. which weekends do we cover it, if we cover it a weekend because it is violent are we creating encouragement for demonstrations to take a particular turn? that is a good point. you need to be careful you don'tjust cover protests when they turn violent or because of a particularly great pictures round fires, and i think

with our coverage of that we have tried to put it into the context of the wider political and social debate that is happening in france at the moment. i think that is what is of interest to the audience round that story. will you think carefully in the next brexit protest, if there are, how you in the next brexit protest, if there are, how you cover in the next brexit protest, if there are, how you cover them? yes, we do always. we are careful how we cover them, the amount of coverage we give to them, and the range of voices that we feature throughout them. thank you very much for coming in for news the watch. —— newswatch. few aspects of the bbc‘s brexit coverage are immune to controversy, one item that caught viewers attention was an interview with sally bun dock with tim martin who runs wetherspoon, it was shown on thursday morning, on the business briefing. business investment has fallen dramatically... we are doing really well sally. it is all eye wash from remainers. just to say,

when you say we will leave and there will be no tariff ractually will be operating within the world trade organisation rules we will have to organise new relationship with trading partners and we don't know what the tariffs will look like if there are some. you are wrong, you are wrong. if we leave without a deal.. iam notjust are wrong. if we leave without a deal.. i am notjust reading stuff out. viewers objected to the way sally conducted that interview. out. viewers objected to the way sally conducted that interviewlj sally conducted that interview.” was shocked and surprised by the tone and lack of professionalism from sally enshe started asking questions, she didn't give him a chance to answer and when he did, she would immediately talk over him. you don't want to hear my reply. this went on for ability seven minute, total lack of professionalism. couldn't couldn't understand why he was invited on in the first place, seven my opinion minutes of what i could see a

totally biased remain view, as tim rightly pointed out. you have got it wrong. sally, you have got it wrong. if she didn't want to hear... lucy didn't, the point is of leaving the eu, then she shouldn't have asked the questions in the first place. the constant rudeness in talking over him was appalling, no wonder he retorted saying you're a remainor sally. is the bbc biased towards remain? remain? sally certainly put it across as that way. absolutely dreadful, dreadful interview. we but those points to bbc news which told us those points to bbc news which told us interviews are robust and challenging and the bbc is committed to the highest standards of due a ccu ra cy to the highest standards of due accuracy and impartiality in its out put. sally challenged tim martin on his views ant presented opposing viewpoints as is to be expected in

interviews of this kind. finally the death toll from the deadly cyclone in southern africa has reached at least 750 people, with victims in mozambique, zimbabwe and mall which. the end of last week, the news at six helpfully showed a map showing those countries. whole towns an villages have been submerged. the disasters emergency committee has launched an appeal to get aid to those most in need. i say helpfully, that may have been the intention, those who know the geography spotted a mistake. linda was watching and said your ignorance of countries in africa is astounding, you have marked zambia astounding, you have marked zambia as zimbabwe. i don't quite know what to say. and carl thought the mistake embarrassing asking, did you use an old colonial atlas? as ever thank you for your comments and you want to share your opinion, or everyone a

peer on the programme, do e—mail newswatch. newswatch. you can call us. newswatch. newswatch. you can call us. and take a look at our web pages too. that is all from us, i will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage at the same time next week. goodbye. good evening, it has been yet another day of warm spring sunshine across many parts of the country. our weather watchers have been out capturing the conditions today. this is the scene in suffolk a bit earlier on, beautiful blue skies there. and our second weather watcher picture comes from near sheffield. in fact, sheffield boasts the highest temperature of the day where we have reached just shy of 19 celsius so particularly warm for the time of year out there today. what is happening over the next few days and i think we have got another day or so of that warmth but it is going to turn colder for the weekend as this cold front sinks its way further south,

that will open the doors for the blue colours. the colder air mass to flow across the country so by the time we get to sunday, typically, we are looking at around nine or 10 degrees for many parts of the uk. back to the here and now, we have got some clear skies through this evening across the bulk of england and wales. it will last through much of the night. but we will have some mist and some locally dense fog patches too. further north we have got this weather front, it is bringing more cloud, breeze and some showery rain to northern parts of northern ireland and to central scotland too, even a bit of wintriness on the highest ground. quite a chilly night in some rural spots with temperatures getting down close to freezing. let's take a look at tomorrow morning and you will see the odd mist and fog patch around across southern parts of england and into wales too. a little bit more cloud around some of these irish sea coasts at times, a bit of cloud too for parts of northern england. northern ireland, central and southern scotland, a fairly cloudy with some outbreaks of patchy, drizzly light rain. sunshine reappears from the north behind that weather front but we are also going to be seeing some showers packing in, particularly for the northern isles through the day. through the day, this weather front will be fairly slow moving.

it will just creep its way further south through northern ireland into northern england as well. scotland will brighten up and it will feel pretty chilly behind that weather front. so many places seeing temperatures in single figures, perhaps ten to 12 degrees at the warmest, but further south we could well see 18 or 19 celsius. particularly warm towards the south—east of england. but there is just a chance of a few isolated showers in the south—east. moving through to sunday and higher pressure builds behind that weather front so we will still have a bit of patchy cloud left, that is the remnants of that front in the south. reasonably mild across the southwest still but further north across the country we have got sunny spells, a bit of patchy fairweather cloud building but you will notice a difference in the temperatures. highs typically of around seven to 9 degrees, 14 in the south—west. bye bye.

this is bbc news, i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at eight, on a momentous day in parliament. the ice to the right, 286, now, 244 then nose had it, unlock. mps have rejected theresa may's withdrawal agreement for a third time, throwing the uk's brexit strategy into further confusion. the implications of the house decision are grave, it's now the uk is due to leave on the 12th of april injust is due to leave on the 12th of april in just 14 days' is due to leave on the 12th of april injust 14 days' time. is due to leave on the 12th of april in just 14 days' time. that's not enough time to agree legislative and ratify a deal. this deal now has to change, there has to be an alternative found and if