a number of small boats are understood to have pushed up before dawn. it now appears that one vessel capsized with reports of around 30 deaths. the use of the word migrant there and widely across the bbc concerns on viewers such as veronique... and dave agreed... that view was supported in the house of commons on thursday by the home secretary, priti patel who said that she would be asking the bbc and other media to reflect on what she called

"inappropriate language. and to discuss the use of language and this story i am joined now by the executive editor for uk's content at bbc news. richard, thank you very much for coming on newswatch. a lot of viewers are saying why don't you just call them people. first of all i should say, this was a terrible human tragedy as you were reflecting there. and i think it's important that our coverage reflects that in a sensitive and respectful way. in terms of the use migrant, i think it's about being as clear and as accurate as we can be for the audience. it's a term that the audience understands, we know that from research. and ultimately, it actually explains why those people were on the channel, they were migrating, they were migrants that were trying to move to another country. so i think it's about being clear and accurate. at the same time, absolutely going on to try and tell the stories of those people as individuals. some people and including

the home secretary it seems, are apparently saying that bbc�*s language is dehumanising. i don't think so. i think we need to be a little careful here. the term migrant is about a person on the move. a person on the move often for very good reasons, to avoid war, persecution, to get a better life for themselves. and we work really hard with our reporting to humanise the story, to speak to people who are making those perilous journeys often. i don't know if you saw the report from dunkirk on the six and ten o'clock news where he spoke to one of the people in the migrant camp to it actually spoken to two people who are on that boat. it was so moving. i think that's really incumbent upon us to really work hard to tell the stories of these individuals, the journeys they've made, the pressures on them.

i should say as well that there are some viewers who contacted us to say that they should all be called illegal immigrants. what is the bbc�*s position? again, isaac it's about being accurate. i don't think that is accurate. if you look at the un's description on this, anybody has the right to claim asylum in another country. we don't know what the status of all those people who died on the boats were but some may well have been seeking asylum, might�*ve had refugee status. it would be accurate to describe them as illegal. how does the bbc decide what each word to use? you know, there's the word refugee, there's the term asylum—seekers are and then the term migrant. how do you decide when to use which one? we use migrants in this case because often it's not clear the reasons why somebody is travelling for the as i say, there could be seeking asylum, they may already have refugee status with update may be on the move for a better lives for themselves and theirfamilies. i think it's about us

being as accurate as we can. as we get more information on people, we get more accurate. in this case we've talked about men, women, pregnant women on the boat, children so as you get more information you get names, back stories and i think that's a really important part of a journalism. when a tragedy happens like in the past week with a 27 people drowned in the channel, it does create a huge emotional response from the public. i wonder if it's a challenge particularly at those moments for the bbc to get the terminology right in reporting such a story. absolutely. you know, journalist within the bbc feel that emotion as well. i think it's about being accurate as i say, but i think it's also about telling stories. but also trying to get to the issues that obviously relate to this matter. whether that is political issues, diplomatic issues issues for locals community, the bigger geopolitical issues around wars around the world. it's important that we try to put these things into context, it's important we try and tell the human stories and get our terminology right. richard burgess, thank you.

another country where migration is high on the agenda is belarus. last friday its leader alexandra lukashenko granted a rare interview to the bbc�*s steve rosenberg. it was a combative encounter. do you admit that since july 270 ngos have been shut down in belarus? translation: i'll answer your question with no bother. - we will massacre all scum that you the west have been financing. oh, you're upset that we destroyed all your structures ? your ngos and all that you've been paying for. europe doesn't see mister lukashenko is a legitimate president. he claims not to care. many viewers praise steve rosenberg's interview but in addition to that lack of recognition he mentioned from the eu, the uk government has also said it considers last year's presidential election in belarus to be fraudulent and it does not accept the results. which gave mister lukashenko

80% of the vote. so some viewers were surprised that he was described on bbc news online as president lukashenko and on tv headlines like this. in an exclusive bbc interview the man known as europe's last dictator, president lukashenko of belarus says he won't stop the flow of migrants through his country. one viewer posted this... we put that point to bbc news and they gave us a statement...

closer to home on monday the news at six reported that the brits, the biggest award ceremony in british music was scrapping separate categories for men and women. it will no longer give out prizes for best male or best female but instead choose one artist of the year. the brit award—winning singer sam smith who identifies as non— binary has campaigned for the change. he says he felt unable to enter last year because of the gender—based nature of the categories. that use of the pronoun he in relation to sam smith who is asked to be referred to as they are them rather than he or him infuriated some members of the audience including grace davies. and george wrote...

well, bbc news told us... finally, they power of the mute button. last thursday morning the day the government announced it was scrapping the leeds leg of the hs to rail line victoria derbyshire interviewed the conservative mp. i would say we don't know the detail but what's important is we have deliverability and we have better transport, fast transport and we get that in the best way. with respect, wouldn't voters say actually, what's important is a prime minister keeping his promises? our promises to level up. no, no, the promise was low,

excuse me, let's be accurate here. the promise was to build a high—speed rail line between nottingham and leeds, that's now not happening. keith shepard spotted that she had continued speaking but could not be heard. he emailed... mike wilson had a different perspective... we wondered why when mary kate and victoria derbyshire seemed to be speaking simultaneously it was the presenters voice that could be heard, not the guest.

so we asked what had happened and were told... thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see hear or read on bbc news on tv, and radio, or social media email newswatch. or you can find us on twitter. you can call us. that's all from us. we will be back to hear your thoughts about news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello there. the winds are picking up now, particularly across more northeastern parts of the uk, where we have this red wind warning from the met office — the winds for a while gusting 80—90 mph, some significant disruption

and a danger to life. it's coastal areas of eastern scotland and the northeast of england covered by that warning until the early hours of the morning. there'll be some very big and dangerous waves around, as well. the storm itself, arwen, drifting drifting down into the southern north sea, will drag down stronger winds southwards across pretty much the whole of the country. and we still have amber wind warnings more widely across eastern scotland, the northeast of england until the middle part of saturday morning — but also across the north and west of wales, and far southwest of england. the winds could be gusting 60—70 mph overnight into saturday morning. we also have an added hazard — we've seen snow already in scotland, that'll move down onto the pennines, could be some significant falls here perhaps into the welsh hills, and a mixture of rain, sleet and snow moving down across the midlands into southern england — meaning temperatures later in the night will be not far away from freezing. the strength of the wind perhaps more significant for much of the country,

notjust windy in the northeast but widely very windy, especially also down some of those irish sea coasts. we still have that mixture of rain, but also some sleet and snow perhaps mainly over the hills, and that wetter weather will push its way towards more eastern parts of england, allowing many other areas to brighten up with some sunshine. still a few wintry showers, especially across scotland. and it'll be a cold day, temperatures perhaps no better than 3—4 celsius — and, whilst the winds do ease down a bit in the afternoon, it'll still feel significantly colder in the wind. now the winds do tend to ease and things start to calm down on saturday night, the storm moves away, the winds start to drop and we start sunday with a widespread frost. this weak weather front will bring more cloud and a few spots of rain into northern ireland — but ahead of it we're in the colder air, there'll be more wintry showers coming down across scotland, running down these north sea coasts where it's windy for a while. the winds continue to ease —

and it won't be as windy on sunday, but it's still cold even with some sunshine. it's slowly milder from the west early next week, but at the moment, all eyes on storm arwen, bringing widespread gales, particularly windy in the northeast, some snow over the hills, and some further disruption.

this is bbc news. the headlines.