welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to to be here, but it is a viewers in north america and around the world. i'm lewis vaughan—jones. honoured to be here, but it is a panel of five and i am the only leave supporter. you are the only 0ur the world. i'm lewis vaughan—jones. our top stories. jubilation in sudan person who voted leave. leave supporter. you are the only person who voted leaveli leave supporter. you are the only as the head of the military council person who voted leave. i am a leave steps down just one day after supporter is welcome as a matter of leading a coup that ousted the fa ct, supporter is welcome as a matter of fact, i am certainly the only person president. translation: who voted leave, and again and again leading a coup that ousted the president. translationzlj leading a coup that ousted the president. translation: i announce as leader of the transitional on this programme the balance military council that i am stepping totally fails to reflect the wider down from this position to select country. can ijust make the point, charles, this is a question to me. someone down from this position to select someone whose expertise and competence i can trust. i am the government supports the leave position on last week we had three confident that he will take the ship to the shores of safety. british mps people who took leave position and two people who took the remain position. i didn't vote. called for wikileaks two people who took the remain position. ididn't vote. feelfree to answer the question. to the shores of safety. british mps called for wikilea ks founder to the shores of safety. british mps called for wikileaks founderjulian assange to be extradited to sweden to face possible rape charges. president trump says he intends to release illegal immigrants into democrat controlled urban areas because the party opposes his you only immigration week after week, brexit is the main subject on question time. and yet, week after week, there's only ever one person who actually wants brexit who's on the panel. will there ever be the situation

where there's only one person who doesn't want brexit on the panel, and all the rest do? what's the bbc‘s view of that claim? "in response to the point made by charles moore," it said in a statement... but question time isn't the only programme that's faced criticism for what's seen as a preponderance of remain voices among its guests. the same point has been made to us about programmes including newsnight and the andrew marr show, and by lynnejones about monday's edition of politics live. and nicola smith also thought she detected a wider imbalance. let's discuss this now with the bbc‘s chief

political adviser ric bailey. ric, thanks very much for coming in to newswatch on what's turning out to be a very busy time politically. has question time raised this question of brexit balance with you? the obligation for all bbc programmes, and particularly for political programmes — including question time — is to be impartial — actually, to have due impartiality. and people forget that word due. it means that programmes have got to think about the context in which they are making judgements about impartiality. so if you think of the context of the referendum, june 2016, voters had a very clear choice between remain and leave. it was a very binary moment in british politics, as all referendums are. but particularly so with that one. the situation has changed a lot since then. our obligation as journalists after that vote was to hold politicians to account for that decision, to hold the government to account. and don't forget, we've had a general election since then as well, in 2017, when people remind us a lot that both the big parties stood on a platform of exiting the european union.

so to define people individually on programmes like question time as either remainers or leavers, it's not something to ignore. we've got to take it into account. but it's not the be—all and the end—all any more, because people who might have been on the remain side in 2016 have stood on a platform saying, "actually, now we're going to leave." what you seem to be saying is that there's no actually objective measure of due impartiality, that the bbc decides from situation to situation. if that is the case, how do you demonstrate to the audience that you are being impartial if you don't have any criteria, objective criteria, against which that can be judged? i don't think that it's not objective. i think where you've got to be careful is thinking that you can do this by maths and slide rules and stopwatches. .. you do do it during elections. you measure the number of people, the number of contributions from political parties.

at the moment, you're measuring the number of women versus number of men contributors. so you are using those tallies in some circumstances. are you tallying up people who supported brexit and people who opposed brexit? i am not saying the maths is irrelevant. what i'm saying is it's not the be—all and the end—all. so we need to be conscious of how much people are on and what their views are, but we don't go back to some arbitrary definition of what remain and leave was which doesn't necessarily fit exactly where we are now. if you don't have those figures, how can you refute the figures that, for example, charles moore used? he quoted the institute of economic affairs. 18 months, it monitored, from june 2016 to december 2017 — so, after the general election — question time and its radio equivalent any questions, and it suggested 69% of the panelists had been declared remain supporters during the referendum and 32% had voted leave. and even if you included in the leave column the people

who had shifted their positions — they had been remain during the referendum but now support leave — it was still split 60—40. you're still trying to put in those terms of using slide rules and stopwatches, and measures which are not a definition of impartiality. impartiality, in the end, is about good editorialjudgement... that's the bbc‘s judgement, not the audience's, is what you're saying. of course, and that's what journalism is. journalism is being asked to make those judgements. and, if you like, one of the tests of that is, what does the audience think of that? and still, the bbc is trusted by more people than any other organisation to be telling the truth and to be giving an impartial account of what's been happening in brexit, which after all is an incredibly complicated political situation. what advice, then, have you given to question time into similar programmes about how they construct panels at this very sensitive time politically, when we are still aiming to achieve brexit and it hasn't been delivered?

that question of dual impartiality... 0bviously, programmes have a whole timescale in which to think about that. it might be over a whole year or over a series of programmes that we make sure that views are represented appropriately. there will be moments where that impartiality needs to be judged on a shorter timescale — as now, in an election period — and it needs to bejudged more carefully run parties as much as brexit, leave and remain. so you're talking about different ways of approaching this. that's why i am not very keen on the word "balance", because balance implies only two sides, and actually, this is much more complicated than that and there are many different issues you've got to talk about. just before we finish, as we record this interview, we know that there are expected to be european parliament elections. what sort of challenge does that pose for bbc news? it's a big challenge for everybody. we don't actually know the elections are actually going to take place. we're starting an election period without even knowing

if people will actually vote. it's a pretty unique set of circumstances, and i go back to my word due. due impartiality means we've got to think very carefully about this particular context and make sure that we're thinking carefully about what impartiality means when we got this european election in some parts of the uk, we've got local elections at the same time. that's a really complicated position against that background of brexit. so a lot of thinking to go on over the coming days and weeks. ric bailey, chief political adviser, thanks very much. on thursday, jack shepherd was sent to prison for six years for manslaughter of charlotte brown in a speed boat crash in 2015. he had an extra six months added to his sentence for fleeing the country. he'd returned to the uk the night before on a flight from georgia, and it was on the plane that reporter sarah rainsford caught up with him. he's never spoken publicly before, so i asked what he had to say to the family of charlotte brown — killed in a crash on his speedboat. i'm terribly sorry for my involvement in charlotte's death,

and furthermore, my subsequent actions which i see have only served to make things worse, and i'd like to make amends for that. why did you run? fear. juliet shone wondering... peter winteringham asked... finally, newswatch is recorded and so can edit out some of the hazards of live television — like me stumbling over my words and tripping over the furniture. 0n live shows, guests are asked to switch off their mobile phones. it doesn't always happen, though. general sir mike jackson was being interviewed by stephanie flanders on the andrew marr show a few years ago.

the success... phone rings. ..is costing all of these lives and yet... it's a bit more embarrassing, though, when it's the presenter‘s phone going off — as happened shortly after an interview on breakfast on tuesday morning. good to talk to you. thank you very much. phone rings. that's so embarrassing. how have i done that? it's still going! how have i done that? i really do... i genuinely don't know what i did. i apologise profusely. let's show you a pretty picture of glasgow. you really are embarrassed, aren't you ? louise minchin declared the following morning that she'd handed her phone over to the breakfast authorities. her co—presenter, dan walker, confirmed that on twitter. there but for the grace of god! thanks for all our comments this week. if you want to share your comments on bbc news or current affairs — or, indeed, appear on the programme

— then do e—mail... or you can find us on twitter, where we use @newswatchbbc. you can call us on... and do have a look at our website... that's all from us. we're off on our easter break next weekend. but samira will be back here in a fortnight‘s time. goodbye. hello. i know all eyes are on the weekend weather, but you may recognise this forecast more in reference to next week. i'll get to that in a moment, but first let's take a look at the big weather pattern for the weekend. low pressure battling with high pressure, for dominance of the uk's weather — it is high pressure that wins but keeps us in the blue with a stronger, colder east south—easterly wind over the weekend. it is high pressure,

meaning most of us will stay dry, bar the odd shower. there will be some decent sunshine around but it is going to be cold for the time of year, particularly in that stronger wind. gardeners take note, frosty nights as well. many of us will start with frost again on saturday morning, away from the north sea coast and away from most westernmost areas where the wind is continuing to pick up. some gusts in northern ireland of around a0 mph. a breezy picture for some, patchy cloud will develop over parts of eastern england, especially east anglia and south—east england, you may catch a stray shower. if you do there could be some small hail associated. we have referenced the wind, average speeds but gusts will be higher, particularly in the west and especially into northern ireland, around a0 mph. for many, temperatures stuck in single figures especially on the north sea coast. for scotland, favourable wind directions with temperatures up to 1a, as we have had over the past few days. clear weather overnight and into sunday but cloud increasing over the far south of england, northern ireland, and on the north sea coast with the breeze we should avoid a frost, but elsewhere we are in the blue so another frost as sunday begins.

but with plenty of morning sunshine, some clouds developing. a stray shower here or there, most places will stay dry. in cornwall and northern ireland, expect cloud, the further west you are, you could see some patchy rain out of this weather front but most places will stay dry, with some cloud building during the day. temperatures similar, as is the wind, so it is feeling chilly. however, into next week, still high pressure, low pressure battling, but the orientation changing. as does the wind direction, eventually drawing some warm air from the south. although it is still high pressure and still mainly settled, it is going to feel very different. all of that happens just in time for easter. temperatures next week on the up.