Hello and welcome to newswatch with me samira ahmed. Coming up has bbc News Coverage of the Winter Olympics been too focused on badly performing brits . We speak to the head of bbc sports journalism. Certain newspaper front pages made a lot of allegations about Jeremy Corbyn and a czech spy. Did the bbc make too little . And, as kfc Stores Across the uk temporarily shut this week, did bbc news get clucking mad with its coverage . First, for the past week many of our National Newspapers have featured headlines such as corbyn the collaborator and corbyn urged to reveal his stasi file. Allegations that the labour lady had questionable contacts with a czech diplomat and agent in the 1980s emerged from files held by the Czech Security service archive. The labour leader called the story nonsense and accused the newspapers of covering it of lies and smears. But not all newswatch viewers were so dismissive of the claims. This anonymous telephone caller thought they were at least worthy of an airing on the bbc. Youve covered the story regarding donald trump and the russia investigation ad nauseam for months and months and months on end but theres nothing on bbc n ews eve n though its featured very prominently in the newspapers and im a bit staggered and a bit flabbergasted by this. Although there were some mentions of the story on bbc news it didnt feature on the Main Television bulletins until a brief mention on tuesday, and then gained more prominence throughout the week. By wednesday on the daily politics andrew neil tackled the subject to much claim. The defence secretary says mr corbyn has betrayed his country. In what way . Well, the defence secretary has chosen his own words. I mean, the point for me about this debacle is that. How has he betrayed his country . Jeremy corbyn is a grave danger to this country, i believe, but thats because. Has he betrayed his country . But thats because of the ideas in which he believes and what that would mean for our economy and our society if he were elected. People have all sorts of ideas. But your defence secretary, our defence secretary, the defence secretary of this government, of our government, has said the leader of her majestys opposition has betrayed his country. In what way has he betrayed his country . Although the claims lacked evidence and were firmly denied, some newswatch viewers thought it was too little too late from bbc news. Lynette smith asked on monday why have you not even passed comment . Admittedly they are only allegations but you are quick enough to cover showbiz stars when years old allegations of sexual abuse were laid at their door. And Barbara Stevens had the same question. Why has there been no headline coverage based on the allegations . Surely this is a matter of public interest. Well, we put that to bbc news and they told us bbc news has covered this story and Jeremy Corbyns response in a range of our output. The bbc correspondent in prague interviewed both the director of the Czech Secret Service archive and the former agent who made the original allegations. Every now and again, we are posed a question put here a couple of weeks ago by pascal freeman who describes himself as an incredulous licence fee payer. Can you please tell me why Regional News is not broadcast in High Definition in this day and age . My mobile phone can record video in ak resolution. It seems very antiquated that the bbc cannot afford the technology so that broadcasts are not interrupted with the message bbc one hd cannot yet show programmes from your area. As a middle aged person i thought test card interruptions were consigned to history. We tried to find out an answer for mr freeman and bbc news told us upgrading the 15 regional versions of bbc one across england and the Channel Islands to full hd is a priority. However, this would cost the equivalent of a third of the annual editorial budget for regional tv bulletins, so we have to balance our plans with the best interests of the licence fee payer. Now, the Winter Olympics come to an end this weekend and for the next four years most of us will probably forget what the difference is between the skeleton and the luge and exactly how russian competitors there are not competing for russia. But for the past fortnight the games have occupied a lot of airtime on bbc one and two, online and also on bbc news with much focused on british performance, some of which was pretty poor. Lets look at examples from the news at ten and breakfast. Its heartbreak for Elise Christie yet again. After failing to win a medal at the last olympics four years ago, history has repeated itself here in pyeongchang. Morning from Pendle Ski Club in lancashire where we have been up all night cheering on the local hero dave ryding who started on the dry slopes here, and as you can tell they are so proud he came in the top ten in ninth, so well done to dave. Clarke goes fourth yarnold wins gold again laura deas has won bronze as well the bbcs Commentary Team seen celebrating lizzy yarnolds skeleton gold, about which more very shortly. But it was the extent of the coverage on bbc news that exercised a number of viewers like tim elliott. Why is the bbc so interested in the Winter Olympics . It is getting an inordinate amount of coverage following the fortunes of privileged people taking part in sports that have not been heard of in the uk. Clive wilce had this to say. I have enjoyed the Winter Olympics but i cannot believe the amount of coverage that has been given to Elise Christies speed skating races. I lost count of the number of times i heard the story of her disqualification, over and over again. For others, it was not the quantity of the coverage but its focus on british competitors which rankled. Brian bollen and tweeted about the bbcs chauvinistic coverage of the Winter Olympics. Ive heard at least one reporter refer to gb as we. In the falklands war the bbc referred to the british. Richard brown thought the bbc coverage of the Winter Olympics is pretty poor. They are far more interested in the british athletes rather than the worlds best. And alan dawson agreed. The Winter Olympics just shows british media, the bbc particularly, just cheer leads losers. We love somebody who tries. Oh, but isnt he or she brave . Well, lets discuss those issues with stephen mawhinney, the bbcs head of sports journalism. He joins us from salford. Thank you for coming on newswatch. We know that some audiences dont care about sport. But was there too much on bbc news particularly on breakfast . Samira, perhaps you wont be surprised to hear me say i dont think so. Obviously it was up to every Programme Editor of each News Programme to decide whether they covered the Winter Olympics and how much they gave to it. But im not surprised that many of them chose to give it extensive coverage because there was some spectacular sport, there has been some really compelling human stories, some wider issues at stake as well in terms of some of the politics and diplomacy that was going on around the games. And, of course, we know that there is huge audience interest in this. In fact, on the Television Coverage alone more than 30 Million People have tuned in through the games, thats more than many of the other major sporting events that we cover, for instance, wimbledon or the six nations. So there is no doubt there has been a wide audience interest, although of course i appreciate some viewers and listeners are not going to be as engaged in sporting stories. This story of building up the athletes journey is another issue more generally that viewers raised. A lot of focus on british competitors who ended up crashing out, like Elise Christie, wouldnt it have been better sports journalism to focus on the events themselves and the winners . So, we absolutely did focus on the events and the winners and i can come onto that. Butjust to deal with Elise Christie. Hers was an absolutely compelling human drama, theres no question about it. She went into the sochi olympics as the favourite in the short track speed skating and ended up having a really dramatic but disastrous time and she ended up being disqualified, oi crashing out of each of those. And then had to deal with a huge amount of abuse including death threats, and thought about walking away from the sport. But she decided to continue, became a multiple world champion, came again into these olympics as the favourite, and yet unbelievably again went through a series in each of her three events where she was either pushed out, disqualified, or injured before her final race where she attempted to compete, fell over again, seemed to have qualified, but then got disqualified again. By any standards, it was an extraordinary human drama and kind of news story around britains favourite athlete going into the games. We had specific complaints about seeing the bbc Commentary Team celebrating british skeleton medal success, also using the word we. Isnt the bbc supposed to be impartial . Obviously we do understand the importance of being impartial and across our News Coverage you would have seen that. Of course, in our live sporting coverage, there is no question these are moments of huge drama, huge passion, many of our pundits are obviously former olympians themselves and they have Close Relationships and understandably have a real engagement and personal closeness to all of the athletes that are out there and their performances, and sport is partly about passion, is partly about that kind of excitement that we get wrapped up in and we want to share that, encompass it and embrace that with our audience. Many of our audience really appreciate that from us. Its certainly true to say that with the summer olympics too newswatch viewers have said they feel bbc News Coverage of these events is too much about british competitors regardless of outcome, when it should be about the top stories of who won. Do you accept that bbc News Coverage needs to be rethought about whether you have got that balance right . As i say, it is absolutely a balance and always done on a case by case basis for every single programme, every News Programme, and you know, i make no apology for the fact that there has been a focus on team gb. There is no doubt there is huge audience interest for that, all of the evidence suggests that. Dont forget that team gb are funded by public money through uk sport, so we literally have a stake in both seeing that as well as holding them to account in terms of their performance. Stephen mawhinney, thank you so much. No problem. Finally, monday brought the bizarre news that the fast food outlet kfc, which used to be known as kentucky fried chicken, had run out of john kay reported on the story the news at six. 0h no when youve been promised kfc as a half term treat but there is no chicken. The company says it is working flat out to rectify the problem. 0h but for some that is little consolation. So, was there something of an overreaction, not just from customers, but from the bbc too . A twitter user describing himself as giacomo g casanova, thought so. Let me get this straight, youre endlessly histrionic re uks child obesity problem, then devote a lengthy slot to a supply issue that shuts kfc stores. Who cares . Featuring unhappy kids and closing with one wailing as though it we re some national tragedy. And thats all from us. Thank you for all of your comments this week. If you want to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs, or even appear on the programme, you can call on 0370 010 6676, or e mail newswatch bbc. Co. Uk. You can find us on twitter newswatchbbc. Do have a look at our website. The address for that is bbc. Co. Uk newswatch. Thats all from us, i will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc News Coverage again next week. Goodbye. Good evening. Very little in the way of rain to talk about at all through this weekend, it will be a dry one but a cold one if you havent already heard. We should get decent spells of sunshine but please factor in the strength of the wind and direction of the wind coming from a cold east, all the way from siberia. There will be more cloud tonight across north sea coasts and again through northern ireland, sandwiched in between the two, the clearer slots, so the temperatures will fall away, the blue tones denoting a frost, so a hard frost first thing on saturday morning, a beautiful start for many of us. That strong wind will continue to strengthen and make it feel quite cold, particularly on the exposed coasts, highest values 4 7 degrees. Almost a repeat performance of things as we go into sunday. We should see a little more in the way of sunshine through northern ireland. Cloudier in the north east of scotland but generally speaking fine, dry, chilly, highs of 4 7 again. This is bbc news. 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