how to report on the thorny issue of migration. welcome to newswatch with me, rajini vaidyanathan, standing in for samira this week. coming up, does bbc news provide a wide enough range of views and context about those seeking to move to the uk? and was the line—up on sunday's laura kuenssberg show a fair reflection of the local election results? over the past few years, the subject of migration has never been far from the top of the agenda, politically, socially and journalistically. but it presents challenges for news organisations because of the complexity

of the issues involved, the passionately polarised emotions it produces and the way certain terms and images tend to dominate the debate. here are three recent examples of bbc reporters covering the subject. net migration reached record levels in 2022 and 2023. that's the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving. you might have got the impression that it's small boats that have driven a record rise in net migration. they haven't. while the issue's important, in the context of overall immigration, the numbers are tiny. rwanda — is this country in east africa at least part of the solution to the huge pressures of international migration? the government thinks so, but it's been one heck of a journey to try to get asylum—seekers sent there. no ifs, no buts, these flights are going to rwanda. - enough is enough. shouting

this was the scene last week as smugglers clashed with police on a french beach. and in the middle of the chaos, one unforgettable image of a small girl perched on her father's shoulders... ..a seven—year—old girl with moments left to live. we now know her name was sarah. andrew harding reporting there, and before him, colleagues chris mason and ros atkins. the coverage of migration often appears in the newswatch inbox. for example, this point made to us byjulia howe... ..she says... meanwhile, stefan badham was more concerned by some of the terminology being used...

..he says... ..says stefan. well, as part of its impartiality plan, the bbc board commissioned a review of the corporation's migration coverage, which was published on tuesday. its author, madeleine sumption, is director of the migration observatory at the university of oxford and a member of the migration advisory committee — that's an independent panel which advises the government — and shejoins me now in the studio. welcome to newswatch, madeleine. it's an extensive report. one of your main findings says this, "the bbc produces a lot "of excellent content on migration, but there are also weaknesses." we'll come to

the weaknesses in a second. but tell us where you think the bbc is doing well on this. i think one of the areas where we see particularly good content is in some ways where it's easiest, which is some of the long form content, so some of the documentaries or long form audio where the journalists really have time to delve into the issues. i think the big challenge, then, is the shorter form content. when someone's only got two and a half minutes for a typical tv package, how do you make sure that you have enough depth that the audience are learning something new and interesting? that's where the real challenges emerge, i think. so that's one of the weaknesses that you identified, then, the ability to explain in depth? that's right. i think explanation is really key. and one of the things that came up in some of the coverage is that there was sometimes quite a superficial coverage of maybe, "a high—profile person has said something about migration," or, "there's been a new development in a long running story," like the government's plan to try and send asylum—seekers to rwanda. and sometimes in the audience

research that we commissioned, audience participants, they found that they didn't feel that they were getting enough background. so they were being told the latest thing, but they didn't really understand, "well, hang on, what is this policy? "why do we have it in the first place? "how does it work?" some of that explanation sometimes got lost in some of these shorterform stories. picking up on what we heard from julia just then, she said, "the net migration story is much more than the boats," and she said that one picture can say a thousand words and is lazyjournalism. that's something that you explore in this, isn't it? yes, yeah. many of the audience members that we did research with were actually quite surprised to learn from some pieces of the content that they saw that people crossing in small boats were actually a tiny percentage of the total, that most migration is people coming on visas like work and study visas, and those other kinds of migration, legal migration, has not had as much coverage in the last couple of years, partly because it — until quite recently — was not as high—profile politically,

which leads to another problem, that i think that a lot of the coverage has been quite driven by what politicians are saying and what the debate is in westminster, which obviously is important, but there's also more than that. and so there's a risk that the bbc could be perhaps slower to pick up on some of these important stories, like, for example, the number of care workers who started coming to the uk in early 2023. some of those important stories can get a bit lost if politicians aren't yet discussing them. you spoke to somebody, an anonymous bbc staff member, who said to you, "there are times when it's so obvious "the government is literally saying to the political correspondents, "�*this is what we want to talk about this week,�* and then we do." now, i'm sure my colleagues at bbc westminster would dispute that's how they do their reporting. but as we head closer to a general election where this is a massive political issue, what are the concerns around making sure that every angle is covered in an adequate manner? one of the things that i think there perhaps hasn't been enough of in the bbc coverage is

some of that bigger picture of, "ok, well, what happens notjust at the moment that people "are arriving in the uk?" we get a lot of that, but we don't hear that much about what happens later down the line. how do people settle in? what are the impacts of migration in communities? and that was one of the issues that was really important to audiences — across the spectrum, actually, but particularly to audiences who were worried about the impacts of migration. they wanted to hear much more of that bigger picture. another thing that often comes up around this debate is the language used when we discuss this subject. and we heard from stefan there, raising his personal concerns about language used on some of our bbc coverage. there is a big question about when you use the phrase "illegal immigration", when do you say migrant, when do you say refugee? and that was the focus of an entire chapter of your review. sometimes, for example, if you're talking about asylum—seekers, audiences did have a general picture of what an asylum—seeker was, but wanted a bit more explanation. you know, this is someone who has

applied to be recognised as a refugee in the country. they haven't yet received a decision, and that is why they are perhaps staying in asylum accommodation or whatever the story might be about. so i think it's reallyjust about making sure that we're not just using the terms but really giving people an understanding of what type of migration is at stake. ok, madeleine sumption, thank you very much for talking through that review that you conducted here on newswatch. thank you for having me. last week's local elections were covered extensively across the bbc on an overnight programme across last thursday evening and friday morning, and as the results dribble through, over the weekend, too, on tv, radio, podcasts and online. well, dawn smith was a satisfied customer, writing.... but karen bailey wondered why...

well, there were no votes taking place in scotland or in northern ireland, but the coverage provided across the uk continued into sunday morning, when laura kuenssberg's guests included two conservatives — transport secretary mark harper and former home secretary suella braverman. i love my country, i care about my party and i want us to win, and i'm urging the prime minister to change course to with humility, reflect on what the voters are telling us and change the plan and the way that he's communicating and leading us. well, herappearance and the line—up in general prompted this phone message. hi, i'm wondering why on sunday's laura kuenssberg programme, following the local england elections, why there were no guests from the lib dems or the greens or from even george galloway�*s workers party, and why suella braverman

was invited on as a guest. where's the balance? well, james steel echoed that sentiment, emailing... andrew pickering added... well, the sunday with laura kuenssberg team pointed out to us that liberal democrat leader ed davey had been on the show the previous weekend, the party's foreign affairs spokesperson, layla moran, appeared the week before, and green party co—leader carla denyer was on the week before that.

they added... thanks for all of 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, you can email... ..or you can find us on x, formerly known as twitter... you can also call us on... and do have a look at previous interviews on our website... that's all from us now. thanks very much forjoining us.

do think about getting in touch and perhaps even coming on the programme. samira's back to hear more of your thoughts about how the bbc covers the news next week. from me and the team, goodbye.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. according to britain's biggest cancer charity, someone is diagnosed with cancer here in the uk every two minutes.

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