hello and welcome to news watch with me, samira ahmed. new research shows audiences increasingly don't want to hear about challenging news stories like the war in ukraine. how should the bbc respond? and how fair was the reporting of the privileges committee's findings on borisjohnson and partygate? the guidance was followed completely. this week's report by mps into whether borisjohnson misled parliament over covid lockdown parties had been long awaited and widely anticipated, but it still came as something of a bombshell when it was published on thursday. by then, borisjohnson�*s rejection of the committee's damning findings had been made crystal clear,

and was echoed by the likes ofjacob rees—mogg. well, i think it's over baked. i think they want to find the worst at every possible opportunity. and i think it shows a degree of vindictiveness that does not work to the committee's favour or advantage. the space provided on the bbc for the former prime minister and his supporters to reject the report's conclusions annoyed william riddell graham, who emailed, "the 30 or so mps who support johnson should not be granted the same air time and the same deference as the hundreds of meps, including many conservatives, who will support the report". "the bbc should seek balance, but when that quest for balance means that you are talking to eccentrics like fabricant and doris, then that quest becomes almost equivalent to a bias". that charge had already been levelled last friday when, before anyone else had seen its conclusions, borisjohnson dismissed the committee that investigated him as a kangaroo court. so, did the bbc allow this pre—emptive strike to shape

the narrative of the story unfairly? simon caudwell thought so. "sorry bbc news". "why on earth are your headlines repeatedly emphasising that the former pm is appalled at being forced out"? "you should be highlighting very clearly that he misled parliament". techie bill, though, has found a bias in the other direction, "yet again, bbc news shows its blatant lack of impartiality in its reporting of the borisjohnson report". having hounded him for over two years, repeatedly emphasising and speculating on every negative they could find or invent, they are now gloating over the report stating he misled parliament". one of the mps out supporting boris johnson on the airwaves on thursday was brendan clarke—smith, who faced victoria derbyshire on newsnight. borisjohnson corrected the record, at least a couple of times. no, not according to the committee's report today. are you sure you've read? which which specific bits are we referring to? they said he purported

to come to the commons and correct the statement, but they weren't satisfied he had. that was another contempt. brendan clarke—smith retweeted the clip of that interview posted by newsnight, adding, "i am standing up for what i think is right". but kay spoke for many in writing, "got to say victoria derbyshire was incredible in this interview". "she knew every detail of her brief and came back sharp and fair every time". "a masterclass in political interviewing". the day after tuesday's knife attack in nottingham, which saw the deaths of ian coates, barnaby webber and grace o'malley kumar. a vigil was held in the city attended by thousands. it was broadcast live on the bbc�*s news channel and rajini vaidyanathan was there. that vigil in memory of two of the three victims who died in yesterday's attacks is due to get under way shortly. understandably, there's been a very sombre mood here at the university of nottingham. what followed offended a number

of newswatch viewers, including a] manzi, who wondered, "are we the only people watching who felt the cameras were far too intrusive, showing close up images of the grieving families"? "the vigil was very moving once it began, but the focus on the grief of the families during the wait was intrusive in the extreme". pete morgan agreed, "never in my 55 years on this planet have i ever turned off any news coverage due to it being too voyeuristic and upsetting". "but your current coverage was absolutely unnecessary". nobody was available from bbc news to discuss those points, but we were given this statement. "the tragic events in nottingham this week were of huge interest to our audience, who expressed concern for and condolences to the families of the victims". "the uk media was invited by the university to cover the event, and we aim to include the vigil as part of our overall coverage, highlighting not only what happened but also the lasting impact the violence will have". "it is always our intention to be

as sensitive as possible to the families and those affected". "and we appreciate the feedback from our viewers on this". on saturday night, many football fans would have been following the progress of manchester city in their attempt to win the champions league final and therefore complete the treble, having already won the premier league and the fa cup. fair, perhaps, to assume that that group didn't include viewers of nick robinson's political thinking, in which he was interviewing baroness louise casey on the bbc news channel. for most of the programme, those watching were kept updated of the score, but with a couple of minutes to go in the final, the channel cut nick robinson off to go, not to pictures of the match, the bbc didn't have the rights to show it, but to footage of manchester city supporters. you wanted to use indeed did use the word of institutional racism, of institutional sexism. and he... we're interrupting this programme as we are in the final couple of minutes of normal time in the champions league final between manchester city

and inter milan in istanbul. what you're seeing now are scenes live in the fanzone in manchester. let's have a listen in. there's a corner about to happen in the final crucial seconds of this game. paul clark was not impressed. "i was engrossed in an interview being conducted by nick robinson only for it to be cut short to watch manchester city fans celebrating the champions league". "whilst this is a great triumph, if i had wanted to see it, i would have picked a channel it was on". "not only that, you decide to go straight into the 10pm news and show the same footage". "this will be the lead story for day, so to cut short a captivating interview to show footage that would be repeated within minutes seems like a curious attitude towards the news". bbc news responded to that point like this, "decisions to cut to breaking news during scheduled

programming on the channel are done on a case by case basis, according to the significance of the news". "on this occasion, it was felt the audience would want to know about this particular historical moment in english football as it happened". "it is not something we do without due consideration". it's been known for a while that audiences of traditional tv and radio news bulletins are in decline, particularly among the younger generation who increasingly get their news from online sources such as tik tok, instagram and youtube. but a report out this week from oxford university's reuters institute lays bare the extent of that decline. around the world, the number of people taking a strong interest in the news has dropped by around a quarter in the last six years. and in the uk the figure is 43% lower than the global average. more than a third of people worldwide say they sometimes or often actively avoid the news. paul gilbert told us his theory of why that might be.

"i read that news is declining in popularity according to reuters". "i suggest the obsession with the politics of the westminster village may be a significant cause". "please, can the news be wider ranging than the current offering"? well, let's talk to the report's lead author, nick newman, who used to work at the bbc and was one of the original creators of its news website. welcome to newswatch. nick, it sounds like the uk drop in news interest is more dramatic than in many other countries. why is that? it's a combination, really, of a very difficult news agenda. people turning away from toxic politics, from just having been through covid, the aftermath of brexit. it's partly just feeling overwhelmed. i mean, i think what digital has done is just produced this huge avalanche of news. it's always with us 2a hours a day. we gave the example of one viewer who picked out the so—called westminster village effect. you mentioned people being turned off politics.

could that be a factor in the uk? yes and no. i mean, i think what the bbc and others see is when there's a big political event, actually, the viewing figures go up. and i think what that is, is people who are interested in news and interested in politics, of whom there are still many, are quite often very interested in the twists and turns of what's going on at westminster. i think the problem is that huge numbers of other people a re less interested. they've got other things going on in their lives and they just want to know the big picture. and i think quite often we sort of super optimise our tv channels or radio channels or our websites for those people who are really interested in news. and we sometimes forget a little bit about people who wantjust sort of headlines or a bigger range of stories, as your viewer explained. yeah, the pandemic changed a lot of people's connections and habits long—term. do you think that's played a part in the decline in news interest?

i thinkwe�*re still trying to work out what the effect of the pandemic has been. but i think there's no question that it's kind of accelerated some of the trends that we were seeing before. so, you know, certainly around news habits and news use, we've seen a sort of further move towards digital, a speeding up of the move away from traditional forms of media print, obviously, but to some extent on television and radio as well. and a sense that, you know, you need to protect our mental health sometimes from these difficult stories. there's only so much we can take. so i think that's part of it, too. people are not necessarily not interested, but they want to sort of ration themselves and they want to see some hope and they want to be diverted into other things as well. you raised a really interesting issue and i want to ask about what the bbc should do. your research found that some long running stories like the cost of living crisis, like ukraine, are a turn off because people feel

they're too depressing. should the bbc be, perhaps, putting out more good news to balance that? i'm not sure it's good news, but definitely more of a mix. and when we ask people who are avoiding news what kind of news they value most, what they think is most important, they did talk about more positive perspectives. they talked about news that tried to offer solutions rather than just point out the problems. they talked about explaining the news better. and i think these are all things that media companies can think about more. i think we also saw this in covid, actually, that explainers helping contextualise the news was really valuable to people. and i think media companies are doing a lot more of that, including the bbc. nick newman, thank you so much. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media, email newswatch at bbc.co.uk or you can find us on twitter at newswatch bbc.

you can call us on 03700106676. and do have a look at previous interviews on our website, bbc.co.uk slash newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. this is bbc news, we would have all the headlines and menu stories at the headlines and menu stories at the top of the hours straight after this programme.

in amongst edinburgh's elegant architecture stands the iconic mcewan hall. in 1897, it was gifted to the people of the city by philanthropist william mcewan and throughout its life, it's been the home of graduations, concerts and even edinburgh fringe comedy gigs. but i wonder if william mcewan ever thought that his hall would be used for this... it's been turned into a fortnite den. four, three, two, one... it's the best feeling ever. basically the only game i've been playing for five years. i'm addicted to it. to win in any sport, _ you need to believe in yourself. in a game like fortnite, anything can happen at any time. welcome to red bull contested, the first—ever major live fortnite tournament in the uk.

today, 100 of the best players will battle through eight rounds of gameplay. the highest scorer will lift the trophy and walk away with £100,000. the very first—ever fortnite major lan event here in the uk. this is a sport where every player is in their own world, their own zone, hardly moving. fortnite is huge. it's only six years old, but it has 400 million players around the world. its battle royale tournaments allow up to 100 players to join each online world and then have it out with each other to be the last one standing. i grew up playing shooter games, so i feel like my aim is really, really good. ijust focus on hitting my shots and that works. irina is a streamer with tens of thousands of followers who can watch her playing fortnite online every day, and this event is a reminder that gaming is also a massive spectator sport.

it's being livestreamed to fans everywhere, and the set—up but what's really interesting is a new version of fortnite drops the day before this tournament, so there are new weapons, new skills to master, a brand—new area of the island that's unfamiliar to everyone, and so i think that does level the playing field. what they're saying is this really could be anyone�*s game. playing field is not that level — of the 100 players, irina is the only female.