coming up — was bbc news coverage of that photo excessive and intrusive? and did its reporting help fan the flames of social media conspiracy theories about the princess of wales? it started off as what seemed like a harmless, heart—warming news story for mothering sunday. this was the headline on last sunday's early evening news. the princess of wales thanks the public for their support in her first personal statement since undergoing abdominal surgery. a new family photo shows catherine at windsor two months after her operation. but that photograph, which may have been intended as a way of dampening down social media speculation about the health of the princess of wales, then became subject to intense

speculation itself, notjust online, but across newspapers and broadcast media, too. it was back at the top of bbc one's headlines throughout the following day. last night, the first of five news agencies issued dramatically worded kill notices — withdrawing the photo due to what the agency said were inconsistencies in the image. then this morning, a social media post from the princess of wales herself, where she admitted altering the image. she said... since kensington palace announced in january that the princess had undergone abdominal surgery — providing no further details and asking for privacy — there's been a growing tide of online rumours and conspiracy theories about her. but did the bbc this week abide by that request for privacy,

or did it fuel the fire of those rumours? hundreds of people sent us their views on this, including julie northeast, who wrote... and john stokes asked... well, another viewer who got in touch with us this week was david force, and he joins us now down the line. while here in the studio is james stephenson, the news editor for bbc news. thank you both for coming on newswatch. so david, lots of news organisations felt that altering the photo was a big news story. did you? it was a story. it wasn't a big news story as far as i'm concerned. it's an amateur photographer, not a professional photographer, and it was a joyful family photo.

i've done it myself with family photos, do a little bit of alteration. but what has been taken up by the media, and i watch the bbc a lot, and certainly the bbc all day monday, to have the the lead article with a forensic dissection of that photograph, looking at every aspect of it, to me, was was over the top when there so many more important things going on around the world. james, the story took up eight minutes, pretty much, of all three main bbc bulletins on monday, nearly a third of the air time. wasn't that excessive? i don't think it was. and i think we've seen from your introduction that the picture was already a story on sunday because of the decision by the princess of wales to release it, as you say, to mark mother's day. so it was already a big story and as david said, a heart—warming one. so the picture had had prominence and had been...they had made

the decision to release it. so when serious doubts came to be cast on it, i think it was inevitable that there would be a degree of prominence and this kind of prominence to the reporting of the questions surrounding it. and i think the thing that really, really tipped that particularly was the decision of these major news agencies. i think initially the associated press, to recall the picture, this so—called kill notice, where they were casting doubt on...essentially saying as they later said that they that they had detected an element of manipulation of the picture. so i think it was inevitable that taken together, those things were going to mean it was going to get a lot of attention from from across the media, including the bbc. david, the royal family often does events with media coverage in mind. so i guess the case that the bbc is making is, isn't it valid for bbc news to look into some of its affairs when there is a story? well, yes, certainly to look into it

when there is a story. and, yes, there was a bit of a story here. but to have it as such a major item throughout the day was just wrong. the princess is just getting over abdominal surgery. the royals live their life in the goldfish bowl. i imagine her mental health is quite fragile at the moment, and i know that the bbc are very keen on promoting mental health, and i don't think having this plastered all over the bbc all day and all evening was conducive to her well—being. i think it was just totally over the top, and ifeel quite cross about it, this is the first time they've ever written to the bbc, and ijust feel it was overkill. james, kate did ask for privacy after her operation. shouldn't the bbc have respected that? we understood at the time that there would be differences of view. it's something of a perhaps a kind of marmite story, where we knew from particularly the figures we get in real time, ut was far and away that the story that people were most interested

in on the day, and that isn't in itself a reason to do the story. but it does speak to the idea that there's a huge amount of interest, and as you touched on, concern about the princess of wales, i mean, i understand that that the points that you're making and why you're saying them. but i think we felt there was an inevitability about the level of interest. and then when this doubt was was cast on what had actually happened to the story, sorry, what had actually happened to the picture, that then heightened the interest. but ijust wanted to add that i think that this story was given an extra impetus by the degree of scrutiny that there now is around photographs and the authenticity of photographs. and that plays into the question of trust. can you trust what you're seeing? it's been heightened recently, as you've probably seen by the interest around artificial

intelligence, ai, and what's now possible. so i think that added to the saliency of the story, that there was a feeling that it was important to understand what had happened here once it became clear that there had been some degree of manipulation of the image. james, just to follow up on this idea of the online speculation about kate's health. she's not been seen officially in public since christmas day. the feeling was still for many viewers that by reporting on this photograph so extensively and all the possible manipulations that inevitably the bbc was fuelling even more all this speculation. well, we have a responsibility to report things that are in the public domain that we think are of interest to our viewers and are in the public interest. we felt that this was an example of that. there are other cases where we've chosen not to run images or footage because we think it doesn't meet those kind of tests. and we'll continue to try and make careful decisions. and it's useful to have the feedback from david and other members of the audience where they think that they take a different

view of the decisions that we that we made. final brief word to you, david. what would you like the bbc to do differently with this kind of story, maybe? what lessons you like them to learn? what i want from the bbc is that they should report important worldwide news rather than too much speculation. they can leave speculation up to red top and newspapers. i want news that's happened that's important to be reported by the bbc. thank you so much, david foster. thank you as well, james stephenson. the controversial social media influencer andrew tate and his brother, tristan, were detained on monday in bucharest after a romanian court ruled that they could be extradited to the uk to face allegations, including rape and human trafficking, all of which they deny. if you may have looked at someone wrong or sped in a car in 2012, they're going to try and put you injailfor it.

but these are very serious allegations. but you must accept these are very serious allegations. if you interrupt me again, sir, please. so what happens is when you get to a certain level of fame, they go through your entire life forensically and try and destroy you. the report went on to show a clip from one of andrew tate�*s videos, which elicited this reaction from lesley... we asked bbc news for a response to that and they told us...

finally, the annual oscars ceremony in los angeles always divides audiences between those who lap up the glamour and glitz, the speeches and the red carpet, and those who think it has no place on the news. alan mcdonnell�*s concern was financial. meanwhile, anthony little is clearly not a fan of the whole event. thank you for all your comments this week. we'll be talking next week to paul royle, who runs the bbc�*s news channel. so if you've got any comments or questions

for him, do let us know. and if you want to share your opinions about anything 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 x formerly known as twitter at newswatch bbc. you can call us on 03700106676 and do have a look at previous interviews on our website bbc.co.uk newswatch. that's all from us for now. thank you forjoining us. do think about getting in touch and perhaps even coming on the programme. we'll be back to hear more of your thoughts about how the bbc covers the news next week. goodbye.

john f kennedy: we choose to go to the moon in this decade - and do the other things, i not because they are easy, but because they are hard. neil armstrong: it's one small step for man... - ..one giant leap for mankind.

52 years ago, we laid our last footprint on the moon. as the crew of apollo 17 left the surface, they didn't know that gene cernan would be the last person to walk on another world for quite a while. we're on our way, houston. but now, in this decade, finally... ..we're going back. and liftoff of artemis 1. nasa's artemis programme will, in the next year or two, return us to our neighbour. part of its mission — to land the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon. another part — to use what we learn here to send the first astronauts to mars.

this is where it all began, florida's kennedy space center, named after the president who made the original pledge to go to the moon. and now this place is at the centre of even grander plans, because this time we're notjust visiting the moon — we want to stay. this is gateway, humanity's first space station that will orbit another world. it will go round the moon every seven days. and, like the international space station above earth, astronauts will call this place home. although, where the iss can accommodate up to 12 astronauts and is comparable to a five— or six—bedroom house, gateway will be...more cosy. gateway is a studio apartment. it's... we're going to have room for our four astronauts,

multiple docking ports, so we can bring our 0rion crew transportation ship, we can bring logistics, and we can dock a lander. these four explorers won't all be cooped up on board for the whole time, though. two will actually be spending a week or two on location — down on the lunar surface. it's a chance to further study the landscape and hopefully find a location for our next giant leap — a permanent moon base. gateway will be there before we put a habitat on the surface. gateway allows us to access any point on the lunar surface. when we went with apollo, we had to pick that spot on the moon and go to it. gateway will give us the opportunity to go down at different locations. the first section of gateway could be launched as early as 2025, with new modules then being added from 2027. a lunar base is admittedly further out and it comes with risk, but also reward. so how do we make that a reality?