No surprise that as the week went on coverage of Donald Trumps presidency continued to exercise newswatch viewers. In particular, the bbcs reporting of the petition urging the government to call off the president s proposed state visit to britain, which those complaining described to us as excessive and hysterical. And of the ban on travellers from seven countries to the United States. Some felt certain aspects of that ban had been largely ignored by bbc news. The list of countries facing the travel ban were originally drawn up by the obama administration, and not invented by trump. Second, many muslim countries themselves impose a travel ban on the citizens of many, many countries, including uk citizens, simply because they have visited israel. There has been little evidence of fair unbiased reporting showing both sides of the story. Its blatantly obvious the Current Issue is not anti muslim but anti terrorist, or anti isis. But the reporters keep trying to push this question into the face of anyone they can to get an impact for viewers. On mondays bbc news, apart from the briefest of interviews with three people on Staten Island who have not been outraged by this panel, no interviews or mentions were made that many millions of people in the us are not outraged by this executive order. Further, the bbc has used the online unaudited petition, which is completely open to fraudulent signatories, as a barometer of Public Opinion in the uk, yet over 45,000,000 adult uk registered voters are not outraged to sign this petition. The outrage is that those who are not outraged are deemed irrelevant to the bbc. While i totally disagree with trumps outrageous claims about fake news or the dishonesty of the media, these claims can only gain credence and credibility if responsible and reputable News Organisations like the bbc fail to present unbiased, impartial, accurate and honest News Reporting or fair and balanced debates and discussions. That debate will certainly continue, but there was at least one bbc programme that featured a clear defence of president trumps travel ban bbc1s Sunday Politics. The guest was nigel farage, and andrew neil began by asking him if he agreed with the president s decision to bar Syrian Refugees indefinitely from entering the United States. You know, there are seven countries on that list. He is entitled to do this. He was voted in on this ticket. I didnt ask if he was entitled. Thats not my point of contention. I asked you if you agreed with it. Well, i do. Because i think that if you just look at what is happening in france and germany, if you look at mrs merkels policy, on this, which was to allow anybody in, virtually from anywhere, look what it has led to. The former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party went on to discuss his views on immigration, and on the governments process for leaving the european union. And the interview produced a strong reaction from viewers, many of whom have objected before about the frequency of his appearances on bbc news bulletins, and programmes such as Question Time. Two viewers recorded their thoughts for us on camera. The aim is balance and this isnt balance. This is a platform. His constant appearances on tv and radio, notjust on the bbc, are a major contribution, i think, to the rise in anti immigrant sentiment in this country in the last few years. I think its time the bbc recognised that nigel farage isntjust some politician you wheel on to give a microphone to when someone says something nice about refugees. He is a rallying point. The bbc treats nigel farage as good box office, giving him Photo Opportunities in pubs, hugely disproportionate access to political shows from bbc Question Time to daily politics, Sunday Politics and much more. By doing so, and by not challenging him, partly because he was treated in the first stages as just good box office, as light entertainment, they helped normalise his views and helped him to put things without challenge that actually affected the whole way the debate moved. This happened from the very beginning and its only in the last two years that hes started to be challenged a bit, and by that time the normalisation had happened. Well, Hugh Milbourn from the sunday Politics Programme joins me now. Why did you have nigel farage on . Well, the main stories this week were theresa mays visit to washington, and then there was a subsequent massive story which has dominated the headlines this week, of Donald Trumps travel ban, and the other big story of the week was of course on brexit, and the commons debates about the passage of article 50. So those were the big stories. And nigel farage was an appropriate guest on both those stories. He was the first british politician to meet donald trump, after his election, and obviously he was a Massive Player in the referendum campaign. A lot of viewers say hes not ukip leader now and he may not be as close to trump as he claims to be. Well, we regularly, on the bbc, invite politicians on to our programmes ex leaders. Ed miliband has been on the bbc this week, for example, nick clegg is a regular guest on our programmes. So its not unusual that we should invite someone on a programme who isnt currently leader of their party. But they are also both mps and nigel farage has never been an mp. Yeah, but he is an mep, he has been elected by the british people as an mep by his constituents. And he is also leader of his party s Political Group in the european parliament, so he is still a person of some influence. A lot of viewers say he is just easy ratings, isnt he . He always has been. And you know when you invite him that he will Say Something controversial. No, i mean, he represents a strand of political thinking in the United Kingdom, there is no doubt about that. As party leader he had a track record of political success, so, for example, his party came first in the european elections in 2014, at the general election in 2015, the party in the popular vote came third. So this is someone. We arent able to exclude from our programmes. He has got a track record of electoral success, and he does represent a strand of political thinking in british politics. Many people to find what it is offensive. His comments on immigration in the current climate, people think he has stirred up anti immigrant sentiment. Do you think it is responsible to have him on . Well, not everyone is going to like what he says and there are all sorts of people that we get on our programmes that some of our viewers are going to disagree with. But your decision to have him on, knowing all that, is that responsible . Its about whether it is responsible, when some people feel there is a growing climate of tension around immigration and the bbc chooses to have on someone that viewers feel holds views that stirring up anti immigrant sentiment. The bbcjust cant be involved in making value judgments about politicians. Ethicaljudgments. They cant, not when they come from a major party, ukip is a major party, there is no doubt about that. We cant be making value judgments about whether what theyve got to say is morally dubious. That is not our role. We are an impartial broadcaster. Well there is no evidence that nigel farage has ever said anything that is illegal, for example, that has never been a risk. I dont think he should be treated any differently than any other politician from any of the other Major Political parties in the United Kingdom. You obviously work on Sunday Politics and daily politics but you will know we have great viewer concern about how often nigel farage is invited onto bbc programmes generally, including Question Time. We also know of course that he now has his own radio show on commercial radio. Do you think the bbc does have him on too often . Well, i know from our outlets, the daily politics and the Sunday Politics, its only the second time hes been on in the last six months. I think he has made about half a dozen other appearances in terms of interviews or being part of panels or Policy Discussions on Bbc Television over the last six months. So i dont think that that is too great a number. And of course on our programmes, obviously andrew neil is a robust interviewer and we always want politicians of the highest calibre from whatever political party. Hugh milbourn, thank you very much. And thanks to all of you who recorded or sent us your thoughts this week. Your opinions on bbc news and Current Affairs could feature on next weeks programme. You can contact us by telephone ore mail you can also post your comments on twitter and watch previous discussions on our website thats all from us. Well be back to hear your thoughts about bbc News Coverage again next week. Goodbye. Hello, good morning. Things are calming down a bit for this weekend. On friday, we had an area of low pressure bringing strong winds onto the south coast of england gusts of 60 mph. Big waves and rough seas. Outbreaks of rain and even some snow over the hills. And here, earlier on in the night across parts of Northern Ireland. The wet weather is moving northwards up into scotland right now. Clearer skies following on across england and wales. Maybe Northern Ireland, too. Meaning it will be chilly with the risk of icy patches. Another area of low pressure on the scene on saturday. We will miss the worst of that but it could bring disruptive weather around the Bay Of Biscay and into france. A lot of people travelling up for the six nations rugby. For the two matches on saturday, it looks like its going to be generally fine. Improving weather at murrayfield. It should be dry in london. A chance of a Little Rain First Thing from the Weather System that is bringing the wet and windy weather into france, but away from the South East Corner of england, it could be a dry, chilly, bright start across england and wales. A few showers coming into the north west corner of england. It should have dried off by the morning for much of Northern Ireland. A cold and wet picture north of the central belt. For scotland, Rain And Snow in the hills. One or two showers further south and developing later in the day in west wales and the far south west of england. That area of low pressure takes the rain away from the extreme South East Of England and eventually that cloud breaks as well. For many parts of the uk, it will be dry with quite a bit of sunshine but a bit colder, temperatures seven or eight degrees. Looking at the showers developing in the west and south west, that develops into a more organised band of rain. Again, there could be snow in the hills. Either side of that, the winds are quite light, skies clearer. There could be frost and maybe some icy patches but also some patches of freezing fog as well. Certainly not widespread but that will take a while to clear from parts of Southern England and maybe Northern Ireland on sunday. A lot of that rain tends to peter out, leaving us with a few showers around across the northern part of the uk but further south, it could be dry. Again, some sunshine coming through but a chillierfeel. 6 8 degrees. Clear skies and light winds overnight and it could be quite a frosty start on monday morning. Again, some patches of freezing fog which will take a little while to clear away. We have a bump of High Pressure to start next week but lurking out towards the west, signs of change again, stronger winds on the way. That will blow in outbreaks of rain off the atlantic and tend to lift the temperatures for a while. Thats it. Goodbye. A very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in North America and around the globe. My name is lebo diseko. Our top stories a us judge temporarily blocks president trumps ban on travellers from seven mainly muslim countries but the white house says it will fight on. Iran condemns new sanctions imposed by the United States and promises to retaliate. A Tourist Lodge on fire in kenya as Drought Forces traditional herders into conflict with land owners. 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