now, it's time for newswatch. hello and welcome to newswatch with me samira ahmed. coming up, as the prime minister appears again at 3 downing street press conference, is the bbc giving the government too much of a free hit on its response to the pandemic or too much of a hard time? i'll be putting those questions and more to the bbc‘s head of news output, gavin allen. in the early stages of covid—19, we became used to the daily sight of boris johnson appearing at a lectern at number ten flanked by chris whitty and sir patrick vallance. he was back there on thursday for the first time sincejuly to imprint this message in the nations‘ minds. —— back there on wednesday. in england from monday, we are introducing the rule of six. you must not meet socially in groups

of more than six, and if you do, you will be breaking the law. press conferences like that took place daily untiljune and have been broadcast live on bbc television as have nicola sturgeon‘s daily briefings on bbc scotland. but that's led to criticisms that the broadcasts have handed both the uk and the scottish governments a political advantage. a twitter user called "crystal moth" commented in may... and helen greig from edinburgh wrote to us... well, on thursday bbc scotland said it will no longer be providing live coverage of every coronavirus

briefing from the scottish government but there was a backlash to that decision too summed up by this caller to our phone line. we are in the middle of an epidemic. we have to be told on the bbc one what has been happening, it is not good enough to say you can see it online. a lot of people do not have access to online facilities and rely on bbc scotland to give them straightforward, daily briefings from nicola sturgeon, and i object most strongly to this as a licence payer. well, that divide between the view that those in power have been given too easy a time byjournalists and the opposite opinion that they should have been challenged more has been apparent more widely as we reported last week. criticisms from both sides have continued to come in with peter noble e—mailing...

..whereas anthony painter tweeted... well, the challenge of keeping both those constituencies happy is of course only one of many that bbc news has faced over the past few months. there have been many changes to the way it has gone about its business of newsgathering and broadcasting — one of the most obvious being the use of masks by some, but not all, reporters. again, public opinion is divided on that with ann best asking...

..but andrew gold wrote... well, plenty to discuss there with gavin allen, the bbc‘s head of news output whojoins me now. gavin, let's start with operations. so, you're in the newsroom instead of in the studio with me, one of the obvious changes put in because of covid. could you sum up some of the other key ones in how you are gathering and putting out news? well, it's been an absolutely transformative time for us in bbc news and bbc general and of course, the uk and beyond. so, everything has changed. from the programmes we put on—air — that we've had to take some off, that we've had to streamline others, we've had to merge some output.

obviously, we've put into place a lot of safety measures for our own staff, and there's been a huge amount of stresses and strains that we've had to overcome. the staff have been amazing, i would say, both on—air and off—air in terms of creatively working from home. but i also pay tribute to the audiences who have come to us in enormous numbers and have accepted the fact that, look, things aren't as usual but have still come to ask for sort of trusted news. one other practical issue, gavin. if you're watching output from bbc reporters around the world doing very similar pieces to camera on public streets, some are wearing face masks, some aren't and as we heard, people are questioning, "well, what's the policy unmasks?" well, the policy, obviously, is going to differ as we have seen notjust nation to nation within the uk but across the world. what we have to do is abide by those regulations and at the same time make sure we are reporting clearly and openly and honestly. there are some locations in train stations, underground, etc where you have to wear a mask.

there's others where you don't — there's more open—air and you are able not to wear a mask. so, we're mindful of that but we certainly abide by it as and when we can and pretty much at all times. there are some exceptions but you have to get specific permission for that. let's talk about editorial now. should the bbc still be running government news conferences live and in full? i think we have to make editorial decisions based on what the news is. they are vital moments for a lot of our audiences to find out what's going on, the big announcements coming up. but i think it's equally important that journalists then are scrutinising notjust the politicians but the scientists who often accompany them as well. so, so long as we are making those judgements, so long as we are not just bbc news but other broadcasters as well, asking those questions, probing on behalf of audiences, i think we keep that constantly under review. what about nicola sturgeon‘s

news c0 nfe re nces 7 no other scottish party leader got that amount of airtime. well, i think obviously if you're in government, you are in a different circumstance that you are making policy, you are leading policy in any one of the four nations. so, clearly, there is a slightly different level of scrutiny but it's not different in terms of the impartiality of how we cover that. so, we'll still be inviting other politicians on for interviews, still looking at their pronouncements and theirjudgements on what the government policies are. one very specific question that has been aggravating many viewers all summer about those news conferences is why bbc reporters don't sometimes just ask one, short simple question? "it would be so much more effective." i think the nature of this crisis, this pandemic, is it is incredibly complicated and it may well be tidy and neat to ask one question. but of course it's likely to be the question that

you didn't want asked, you wanted something else asked. now, we can't ask every question but there are often one, two, three things that are pretty crucial to get across for a range of audiences. and i think it's right that we try to keep that as brief as possible, as straight as possible but all to try and get both answers to both questions. a question about the dilemma now. viewers, as we've made clear, are very divided on whether they think the bbc‘s too soft on government or to panic inducing going on about u—turns all the time. do you think there is a problem for news here? i don't think it's about panicking and i don't think it's about criticising government. it is about scrutinising, and it is a difficult line to draw, i'll be honest with you. we have discussions all the time about, "have we covered this enough? "have we explained this?" but i think — the prime minister himself earlier this week acknowledged at the fact that this is complicated, it is confusing, that people are sometimes baffled by the rules,

and it's ourjob to make that as clear as possible. now, clearly, we have to pose questions in order to get that clarity and we shouldn't apologise for doing that but we have to do so in a very calm, informative way. because in a time of national crisis, it feels quite a unique time for bbc news, don't you have a dilemma about how far the bbc should be a public information service or be challenging the government's version of things? as you know, i don't think that is a dilemma, and it's not a unique time for bbc news. it's a unique time for everybody — everybody watching this programme has never been through something like this before. and i think that what our role is is to desperately try to get clarity and it is a changing story, it is a developing story going back and forth that we have to try and make sense of, and it's a public service but were not a public information service in the sense of we are not a government service. it's important that what the government announces

and opines upon or the scientific data, we explained that quickly to audiences but we're not there to sell that message. where there so that people can sort of understand the message. that is important in our role of being a responsible broadcaster. one more question. the new director—general tim davie has implied that bbc news needs to win back a reputation for impartiality. what do you think needs to change? i think i'm not sure we have to win it back. we are by far and away viewed as the most trusted and impartial source of news — not just broadcast source but source of news. i think what we all have to do is to acknowledge that is central to what makes us a broadcaster of use to audiences. impartiality is pivotal to what we do. it is about the perspectives that we get and give to audiences, it's about our own staff making sure we're having the input that's impartial as well, but it is about remembering that every single time we come to a story and how we treat it and how we broadcast that to audiences.

gavin allen, thank you. thanks. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or what you hear on bbc news, including its social media and online output e—mail... or you can find us on twitter at... you can call us on... and do have a look at our website... that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello there. some of us will get a reminder of summer early next week but before then, there's a bit more rain to come and it's mainly for scotland and northern ireland. you can see this ribbon of cloud stretching right the way

across the atlantic. that's been bringing some rain down across scotland, northern ireland into parts of england and north wales as well. it's on that weather front there. but that weather front is moving into higher pressure so, it is weakening and the rain is becoming lighter it is weakening and the rain is becoming lighter and more patchy — narrower line of rain moving further south overnight. behind it to the north, clearer skies. quite a few blustery showers coming into ireland and scotland but a cooler night for northern parts the uk. milder further south, double figures especially where we keep that cloud around. but as we head into the weekend, most of the cloud will be again for scotland and northern ireland. a lot of the rain will actually be on saturday night and it should improve during sunday. further south across england and wales, mainly dry this weekend. warm sunshine as well, and those temperatures will be rising, too. and we start with a fair bit of sunshine on saturday. there's that band of cloud producing one or two showers loitering down towards the south—east corner of england. sunnier skies, scattered

showers across scotland, northern ireland before it clouds over later and the winds start to pick up as well with rain not far away. these are the temperatures, quite healthy for the time of year in the sunshine, it will feel quite pleasant as well. but the winds will strengthen on later in the day. we got some wet weather for northern parts of northern ireland and particularly into scotland overnight threatening some flooding. more rain to come on sunday. the main rain heading northwards into the highlands of scotland where there could be a months worth of rain in the coming few days. more sunshine elsewhere across the uk as the winds start to drop late around and with the sunshine, temperatures will be higher. we are looking at me be the mid—20s across eastern england on sunday afternoon. but some higher temperatures are likely early next week. we got high pressure across continental europe. it has been very hot across iberia, france, and that heat is moving its way northward particularly into england and wales.

still got a weather front loitering out towards the north—west of scotland, perhaps not far away from northern ireland threatening a bit of rain. so, it's not going to be quite as warm here. higher temperatures further east across scotland but it's across england and wales that we will see temperatures widely into the mid—20s or so. we could be close to 30 degrees on monday and tuesday in the south—east of england before it turns cooler, i think, by wednesday.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. will bahrain says it is normalising relations with israel, in a move that further erodes the arab world's boycott of the jewish state. protests in lesbos against conditions on the greek island with migrants demanding to be allowed onto mainland europe. more than half a million people in the us state of oregon flee deadly wildfires raging across the pacific northwest. in the uk, the r—number, showing how many people each coronavirus patient infects — moves above one for the first time since march.