with novak djokovic have so dominated the news agenda on tuesday? and could the coverage of the tennis star have discouraged some people from taking a covid vaccine? the first clue that bbc news thought it had something big to share with the world came with a tweet on monday evening from amol rajan promising a... from the following morning, amol rajan�*s interview with novak djokovic was played out extensively on multiple bbc outlets, including a hastily scheduled half—hour special that evening on bbc one. and the subject occupied the first ten minutes of the news at one. are you prepared to forgo the chance to be the greatest player that ever picked up a racket statistically because you feel so strongly about this jab? yes. i do.

why, novak, why? because the principles of decision—making on my body are more important than any title. the tennis star said he hadn't had a covid vaccine because he didn't have enough information about it, but after that interview was aired, bbc health correspondents also appeared, saying that claims of a lack of information about the vaccine were dubious at best. i novak djokovic says he doesn't havel enough information about the vaccine and what it might do to his body, but there's already a mountain i of evidence available. european regulators have approved five different covid _ vaccines using three - very different technologies. they were developed i in record time, but went through all the usual trial stages involving tens of— thousands of volunteers. many viewers got in touch with us to complain about the coverage,

with matt suggesting the views of a non—scientist on covid had received too much prominence. and alison munro had this to say... well, we also heard from another viewer who got in touch with us, kris pierce. this is what she had to say. i was really disappointed with the bbc this week and somewhat angry for the amount of publicity and airtime they gave to novak djokovic and his views on the covid vaccine. cameras all over the place... novak djokovic�*s views just go against everything

we're trying to promote, and the bbc, in showing him and highlighting his views, is just giving so much publicity to this. and for him to be a role model for anti—vaxxers. and your interviewer didn't question him strongly enough on this. he seemed to be almost fawning over him. you're better than this, bbc, and i really expect more from you. joining us now is chris gibson, the editor of the culture at team at bbc news. thank you so much for coming on newswatch. there have been a lot of concerns. can we start with the issue about just what was it really an exclusive? what did we learn that was so revelatory? we already knew he wasn't taking the vaccine. well, firstly, thank you for having me and for engaging me with this issue. and i know that some people have concerns about the prominence of this interview. i think it's worth just discussing

the context of novak djokovic and why we thought this was such an important interview. so, in the lead—up to the australian open, the saga around novak djokovic's detention led news bulletins across the world, and indeed across the bbc, day in and day out. but we never heard from the man himself. and so this was genuinely an exclusive, it was a news interview that he hadn't done before. and he's a public figure in a debate with huge public interest. this story performed exceptionally strongly with the audience for the whole week. but a lot of the public feel this gave huge succour in a way to an anti—vax view and that he wasn't challenged enough on that. so, you know, obviously his views, we know that his views are very sensitive, and we know this is a very emotive topic for many people. so, we spent a lot of time and care and consideration in preparation for the interview and also what went round the interview.

so, on the issue of him being robustly challenged, amol asked him very pointedly on a number of times to spell out what his vaccination status was, whether or not he felt he was above the rules, also the events leading up to the australian open. many people felt that it was convenient that the only way he was able to play at the australian open challenged him on that. so, i do think that there was robust challenge, but i also think it was really crucial with this interview... we've heard from fergus already, that we put our medical editor to act as a rebuttal to what he had to say because novak djokovic's views are definitely in the minority and definitely run counter to the scientific community. so, you know, we're really keen that any viewer, listener or reader was exposed to fergus's analysis to show that actually what novak djokovic says is disputed.

but he got half an hour, and the medical correspondents got a few minutes. so, obviously we've done huge amounts on the vaccine and its safety for a number of years now. but i also think there would be a danger if that interview was cut too short. you know, on the flip side of this issue around prominence is if you reduce what he had to say to a few minutes, then you're not exploring the issue enough, and then crucially you're challenging him enough. and i think that you have to let interviews like that run for a bit of time so the audience can hear the ins and outs of what happened. this is a very complicated story in terms of what he says and what the austrian government says, but also then to hear him being challenged point by point, particularly about, you know, the status and the people he met in serbia in the lead—up to the australian open. a lot was made of this is a big exclusive.

a lot of viewers are wondering were you both just a bit starstruck. i wasn't starstruck. i think i was more genuinely interested in what he had to say. i think it's also right and is kind of an interesting discussion point for this programme about the bbc and promoting our ownjournalism. and my view of someone at the coal face is that this was a genuine world exclusive. i think any news organisation around the world would have promoted this very prominently, and the bbc is not any different. and i think this did add to the sum of knowledge about that event. chris gibson, thank you so much for coming on newswatch. thank you. on monday, bbc news carried a report from lucy manning about caroline flack, who took her own life two years ago this week. two months before the tv presenter killed herself, she had been charged with assaulting her boyfriend. two years on, her mother still doesn't have the answers about the way the police treated her.

but what followed in that report, a still photograph of caroline flack, caught the attention of a number of viewers, including jo, who recorded this video. towards the end of the article, you should still image of caroline wearing a sparkly low—cut dress, but i noticed that you focused on her chest area before you moved up to show her face. now, i wondered why you'd done this considering there's enough in the media about the objectification of women and girls, and you report on it_ fairly frequently yourselves. so, itjust did seem a bit odd and rather disappointing actually. it seems to me that that kind of filming is part of the problem, and you're not actually blazing a trail towards equality for women. thank you. now, we reported last week that an edition to the new bbc one regional current affairs series we are england had been dropped from the schedule at the last—minute amid concerns about its accuracy.

this week, there was more embarrassment when another edition of the series, which was broadcast last month, was removed from the iplayer amid further editorial concerns. the programme praised a dance school attended by caroline flack for helping improve its students�* mental health, but failed to mention a recent ofsted report which listed several criticisms of the school. as was the case last week, the bbc also removed a company website article. someone tweeting as devil food cake blamed... we wanted to talk to someone about the whether the budget cuts made in regional news might�*ve contributed to we are england's to we are england's problems, but were told that wasn't possible. the bbc�*s head of midlands, stuart thomas, has now been draughted in to provide additional editorial support, and he's welcome to come and talk to us at any point. in the meantime, we were given this statement.

wednesday brought some economic figures which bbc news reported throughout the day, using headlines like this. the cost of living hits a new 30—year high as energy, food and fuel costs rocket. but did they really mean a high in the cost of living? david jones thought not. will somebody please explain to bbc news economics department the difference between a price rise and an increase in the inflation rate? several times this past week on your website and news bulletins, there have been headlines to the effect of "living costs hit record high". for as long as there is a positive inflation rate, prices will continuously be hitting record highs. prices still increase when the rate of inflation reduces as long as the rate of inflation remains positive. so, of course living costs continue to rise. the cost of living, then, is almost always at a record high. nothing newsworthy there.

the big news that day was inflation was at a 30—year high. the bbc news told us... thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see, read or hear on bbc news on tv, radio, online or social media, e—mail newswatch@bbc.co.uk or could find us on twitter, @newswatchbbc. you can call us on 0370 010 6676, and do have a look at previous interviews on our website, bbc.co.uk/newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts may bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye.

hello. storm eunice is now moving away from the uk. a couple of days ago, it was a storm which had barely formed on the satellite picture. just in the past 2a hours, look how it really took shape. it's moved across the uk. it's now out into the north sea. as it continues to move away, these really strong and damaging winds will continue to ease. we aren't there yet. in fact, ther is still a met office amber warning here in this area. gusts of 60—80 mph, but as we get deeper through the evening and especially into tonight, the worst of these winds are going to be behind us. but there is so much clearing up to do. now, also causing disruption today has been the snow across parts of scotland, notjust into the higher ground. several centimetres to lower levels in places, too, so really tricky travelling conditions here. further patchy rain, sleet and snow here into scotland, parts of northern england, especially into the higher ground, as we go through the night. many other places, though, turning clear, cold, frosty. and where you've seen

some wet weather today, it'll be icy as well. now, we have further wet and windy weather on the way into the weekend. not as bad as we've seen, but the winds will pick up around this system, taking some wet weather through to wales in england during saturday. the northern flank of this could have a bit of snow to lower levels, but also moving through northern ireland towards southern and western scotland with some rain. at least some hill snow out of that, and for a time toward the coast of south wales, southern england, these are average wind speeds. could well see some gusts close to 50—60 mph. not quite on the scale, of course, as we've seen today, but hampering clear up efforts here. more places with the daily temperature in single figures compared with today. now, we're going to see more wet weather heading our way as we go through saturday night and into sunday from this front. then another front coming in from the west on sunday. that's going to take outbreaks of rain slowly southwards. not much towards the far south and south east during daylight hours. rain totals mounting up over into the west of the pennines. wintry showers following on behind. more widely windy day on sunday.

these are gusts here. parts of scotland, northern ireland, irish sea coasts, could be disruptive gusts in excess of 60 mph in places, so we need to be aware of that. somewhat milder day on sunday before as that system clears away, it will turn colder again. things are not going to be as bad as they have been today, but there will be further wet and windy weather around over the weekend.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as russian drills continue near ukraine, the us says russia has built up the most significant military force in europe since world war two we see additionalforces going to the border, including leading edge forces that would be part of any aggression. after a second day of shelling in eastern ukraine, western leaders — meeting at the munich security conference — again warn that the clashes there could be used as a pretext for a russian invasion. president putin will watch military exercises involving ballistic and russian nuclear forces on saturday. moscow says the drills are not a threat to anyone. storm eunice leaves a trail of death and destruction in europe —

we'll get the latest from the uk and the netherlands