well, the following day, the bbc acknowledged that those criticisms had a point, putting out this statement. there has been no further word yet on that, but in the meantime they have been more objections to another bbc interview about this case, and it took place on new year's eve on radio 4's today programme, and clips of it were shown during the day on the news channel. the guest: ghislaine maxwell's brother ian, who challenged the version of events set out

in court by her accusers. i'm not saying that they are lying — i mean, you know, it may well be that they were victims of jeffrey epstein. but i do not accept that they were victims of ghislaine. that's my position, and that's also her position. again, many listeners and viewers were concerned. kate hahamis wondered: again, the bbc put out a statement in response, but this time defending the broadcast. it said: it added: we did want to talk to someone at the bbc about those two

interviews, but were told they had nothing to add to the statements we've heard. we can, though, hear more on this now from newswatch viewer sarah churchwell, who is professor of american literature and public understanding of the humanities at london university. sarah, you saw that interview with alan dershowitz, what was your concern? i was horrified. i was really, really outraged. and it was the phrase, "formidable conflicts" in your description in your description sticks with me from the other viewer. he has multiple conflicts of interest in this case, and he is himself directly implicated, as he said. so not only did he not comment impartially on the maxwell verdict, he didn't comment on the maxwell verdict at all. he took the opportunity to charge virginia giuffre who has accused him of abuse, and to say that the verdict somehow vindicated him. so it was, it was problematic on multiple levels because at no point for a uk audience,

or an audience who doesn't know who alan dershowitz is, and what his very complex relationship with this case is, theyjust took him as the "constitutional lawyer" that he was described as, an impartial, neutral expert, when in fact he is personally implicated in the case, and has been accused of criminal wrongdoing, a very serious criminal wrongdoing. could he have been a suitable guest if enough context had been given about his connections and his conflicts of interest? i think he could have been, but it is notjust that he was a guest, it is that he wasn't challenged, either. he wasjust given their time put his case out there. and even when he said "this has cleared me", at no point was that taken up or challenged. if he had been interviewed where it had been made very clear that he represented epstein, that he acted for him in the nonprosecution agreement in florida that has been so controversial, and then he had been challenged, and he had been, you know, robustly interviewed, then i think that that would have been acceptable. but the problem was that none of those things happened. and we should say of course, alan dershowitz, of course, absolutely denies any involvement in abuse.

now the bbc have said they are investigating what went on, you heard that statement. will that do? i guess it depends on what the outcome of the investigation is. my personal concern watching it was that at no point did the presenter say "wait a minute, are you implicated, what is your implication", even if the presenter hadn't known until that moment, which of course... they should have done. but even if, you know, you get to that point, i would still expect a bbcjournalist to hear somebody say "this verdict has cleared me personally", and then ask some of the obvious follow—up questions. so for me it will very much matter what the result of the investigation is. two days later ian maxwell, ghislaine�*s brother, was on the today programme defending him. what did you think of that decision? well, again, it seemed to me as if there were, it was again, a problematic decision for me. i think that it felt like preferential treatment, and i understand that they are saying that there was somebody there to challenge ian maxwell's position, and that the story was actually about their decision to appeal, but...

i have to agree, again with your viewer, who said that, you know, is this now going to be the standard practice for people who are convicted of child sex trafficking? because at what point, you know, are we actually saying that the bbc is going to bring on the relatives and the interested parties in a criminal case in order to defend against the verdict that is, you know, lawful verdict that has been made? do you think the bbc needs to rethink the interviews they do on stories like this? i do, actually. i think there was an effort here to create balance, which of course is very, very important for the bbc to do. but this feels to me like false balance, because what you are actually doing is allowing people who have been convicted of wrongdoing, this is not people who are charged, people who have been convicted of wrongdoing, for their surrogates and proxies to argue about conviction was somehow problematic or overturned — or should be overturned.

at that point, the balance in question is somebody defending a criminal, or arguing that it wasn't criminal. that is not balance, that is not a balanced coverage of a criminal verdict in a society that obeys the rule of law. sarah churchwell, thank you so much. the difficulties tennis star novak djokovic has faced in trying to enter australia, and the argument that has prompted over covid vaccinations, has been widely covered this week across bbc news. some viewers considered the airtime it was given to be unwarranted, particularly in comparison with that given to the violence in kazakhstan — although the bbc has pointed out that the latter has featured across its output, including on the main bulletins. dr david pearson had this to say about djokovic.

on wednesday, bbc one bulletins brought news of a notable achievement. here is clive myrie on the news at six. a british army officer has become all the first woman of colour to complete a solo exhibition to the south pole. captain preet chandi, who is 32, trekked 700 miles in a0 days, pulling all her equipment on a sledge. in the report that followed, captain chandi talked about herself as an asian woman and how she wanted to inspire others with similar backgrounds. nevertheless, viv whitten, among other viewers, was unhappy with the phrase "the first woman of colour" used in that introduction, and recorded this video. it was inspiring to hear some positive non—covid news about the brave young woman who had recently trekked to the south pole. but totally unnecessary, and irrelevant,

to describe her as a "woman of colour". we haven't even noticed her skin colour. this bbc bias is simply inverse or woke racism which encourages division and undermines our civil society. last saturday the new channel broadcast live the funeral service for archbishop desmond tutu who died on boxing day. some of the proceedings, though, were interrupted by studio discussion about the archbishop's life, and that annoyed viewers such asjenny hempstead. finally, the name of the next person to run bbc news and current affairs was announced on thursday. deborah turness faces a big task, as evidenced by these two contrasting messages posted on twitter.

here is paul morris. jeduimru had a different perspective. as ever, on newswatch, we will be monitoring how well bbc news satisfies competing constituencies under ms turness when she takes up post. in the meantime we'll be speaking to the outgoing director of news, fran unsworth, in two weeks time. and do send us any questions or comments you would like us to put to her, or any of your opinions about what you see, read hear on bbc news on tv, radio, online or social media.

you can email: you can find us on twitter: you can also call us: and do have a look at previous interviews on our website. that's all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. well, earlier, the skies were clear and we had a touch of frost, even some icy patches in places after the recent wintry weather. but now, a weather front is approaching, and the first half of saturday at least will be very wet and windy. now here's the low pressure that's sweeping into the uk, here's the weather front, and this is rain—bearing cloud, so if the rain hasn't reached you already, it will do very soon. ahead of this weather front, there's some temporary snow falling across the highlands

of scotland, but for many of us, it really is rain. and the rain will be heavy, it'll bring also very blustery weather by the end of the night to many western parts of the uk. and look at the temperatures — eight degrees in belfast, double figures in the south—west, just around freezing or above across eastern parts of the country. so here's that low pressure around early saturday. within it, we've got milder air. you can see the milder winds coming in from the south. behind the cold front, yes, there's slightly colder weather, but not as cold compared to what we've been having in the last few days. so, here's that wet and windy weather for the first half of saturday. later, notice that the skies clear. there will be frequent blustery showers, some will again be wintry, particularly across the highlands, but for many of us, it is rain. it will feel chilly in the wind, but notice that rain really dragging its heels around east anglia and the south—east. it may not clear the south—east until after dark, so here, it really will be

an unpleasant day. come the evening, i think saturday night into sunday, things will start to dry out. here's the good news — saturday night into sunday, the weather will calm down, which means that on sunday, it will be a much better day. better — there still will be some showers around, particularly across northern areas, and in fact, we are expecting later on sunday some damp weather to move into south—western parts of england and maybe wales. but on the whole, it's a much better day, much drier and brighter for many of us, with temperatures around the average for the time of the year. so, here's the weekend summary again. you can see that wet weather earlier in the day on saturday, much better by sunday, and thereafter, it is turning milder. bye— bye.

hello. this is bbc news. our top stories. three white men who murdered ahmaud arbery in the us state of georgia are given life sentences — the family said they never lost faith in justice. i knew that we would come out with a victory. yes. — i never doubted it. and i knew that today would come. the us questions kazakhstan's decision to invite in russian troops to quell unrest, saying it might be difficult to get them to leave. india locks down the capital delhi to try and halt a surge of cases fueled by the 0micron variant. you will call me sir or mr thackeray. and sidney poitier, the first black man