Focus on Africa's Editor, Joseph Warungu, explains how the Focus team were tipped off about the story by their local reporter based in the town of Bo.The local police chief there confirmed that he'd also had reports of an accident in which as many as 200 people were unaccounted for and he'd sent out a team of 30 to investigate.

The scene of the reported accident was very remote and only reachable via extremely bad roads, made worse by the monsoon season. The local reporter had checked with the Mining and Mineral Resources ministry and heard that the minister was making his way to the scene.

Joseph says that in situations like this, it's hard to get to the facts and that the BBC has to trust its reporters on the ground. He talks about the different sources of information available in such areas and says that ideally, the reporter should get an eye-witness view.

However in this case, the local reporter was arrested as a result of his broadcast, detained overnight and refused entry to the mining area to check what the facts actually were.

Joseph says his programme has to strike a balance between cautious fact-checking with the authorities (who in some African countries may wish to prevent information from emerging) and the breaking of important news.

Where do you think the line should be drawn? Is it better to make the occasional mistake or wait - perhaps for days or weeks - for the full story to become clear?

Being British

Also in Over to You this week, we hear what one of the BBC Hausa service's producers,  Jameel Yushua, has made of his travels round England this week for the World Today.

Together with presenter Komla Dumor, he's been heading up the M1 Motorway in England, calling in at Luton, Leicester and Leeds, asking different communities what makes them tick and trying to find out what it means to be English.

Schedule changes

We also explore one of the recent changes to the schedules.

Evening Report, a programme about South Asia from South Asia has been cancelled. In its place is an edition of World Briefing which will be co-anchored in London and Delhi.

This South Asia-leaning World Briefing can also be heard in Australia, East Africa, Europe and the Middle East, plus on the Internet. 

What do you make of this programme? Are you interested to "eavesdrop" on the stories viewed with a South Asian twist? Should the BBC World Service do more of this kind of thing?

Penny Vine is the Producer, Over To You

 Over To You is your chance to have your say about the BBC World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and at 02:40 on Sunday (GMT). 

On 7th March, three villages were attacked and, though exact casualty figures are disputed, hundreds of villagers are believed to have been killed.

A policeman walks past women protesting the recent killings of scores of mainly Christian villagers in Jos on March 11, 2010 Picture: Getty Images

Although the victims on this occasion were mostly Christian, the attacks are thought to be reprisals for previous killings in January, which claimed the lives of over 200 people, mostly Muslims.

But the longstanding problems in the area are about far more than just religious differences. 

On Over to You this week, Rajan speaks to the BBC's Lagos correspondent, Caroline Duffield.

She was among the first reporters on the scene at Dogo-Nahawa, one of the villages where many people were killed two weeks ago.

She found people desperate to have their story told and angry with security forces for what villagers saw as their failure to protect them. She reported that she had seen no security forces herself on the road to the village.

An Over to You listener, Edwin, sent a text from the Netherlands to say that the BBC could be contributing to the sense of fear and insecurity in the area with such reports.

Rajan discusses with Caroline whether journalists could be in danger of fanning the flames of unrest in such situations.

She argues that objective eye witness accounts and accurate information are vital in a confused situation where rumour and unsubstantiated allegations are rife.

What do you think? What are the roles and responsibilities of reporters in such tinderbox situations?

Remembering Charlie Gillett

We learned this week of the sad death of the world music champion and long-time World Service presenter, Charlie Gillett.
 
If you'd like to pay tribute to Charlie, tell us of your memories of listening to his programme and what it's meant to you, please leave your comments on this blog or send them via e-mail direct to us at overtoyou@bbc.co.uk.

We'll feature some in the programme next week.

Penny Vine is the Producer, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the BBC World Service and
its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and at 02:40 on Sunday (GMT). 

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Subscribe to the podcast
  
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44
  144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog.

US President Barack Obama listens to a question during a town hall meeting at Nashua High School North, 2 February, 2010. Picture credit: Getty Images

Some of the more forthright views about Obama were included in trailers to publicise the series. These trailers brought in turn some strong opposition from listeners who thought the whole idea of the programmes was unfair.

Unyime Nseyo described the topic as "inflammatory". And Alambo Datonye Fred e-mailed from Port Harcourt Nigeria to say: "You've advertised extensively your documentary on those who feel Obama has done nothing but you don't make an effort to have another documentary on those who feel he is a good leader. What's happened to your long-held values of fairness and balance?"

And the content of the programmes sparked an interesting debate on our blog. So on this week's Over to You, as promised, we try and get answers as to why the programmes were commissioned and you can hear Gary Younge responding to those blog comments.

Also Murray Holgate, the Network Manager of the World Service in English, defends what one e-mailer called the "incredibly negatively-worded, overdramatic, endlessly repeated trailers".

Scratching the surface

And don't miss the other item in this week's programme.

There's a lively encounter between Dr Geoff Wade, an academic in Singapore who's been researching Chinese relations with Southeast Asia in the Ming Dynasty for over 20 years and Nick Baker, the producer and presenter of the documentary China's Forgotten Admiral.

Nick set out to tell the fascinating story of Zheng He, a eunuch, a Muslim, possibly even a giant and one of the world's most historic important naval figures.

But Dr Wade doesn't think Nick took a rigorous enough approach to his subject and may have misled his audience by emphasising the commercial rather than the military nature of the Admiral's voyages. And sparks fly!

What's your view on historical documentaries?

Can a programme that's only 23 minutes long ever do more than scratch the surface of a topic?

Penny Vine is this week's producer of Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the BBC World Service and
its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and at 02:40 on Sunday (GMT). 

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Subscribe to the podcast
  
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44
  144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog.

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the BBC World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and at 02:40 on Sunday (GMT).

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Subscribe to the podcast
  
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44 144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog.

As there were far too many to include in this week's edition, I thought I'd use this post to summarise what you said.

Cheers! Martin Pegrum enjoys the World Service. See his collection of valve sets below.

We heard from lots of internet listeners - but perhaps that's because they were the people who were already seated at their computers and so could fire off an e-mail.

They included Jayne Solesbury in Rome, Claire Buckley in Hong Kong (who also listens on shortwave) and John Parsons and Hope Smith in the United States. Lots of internet listeners seemed to listen for very long periods of time. Joyce Brennan says she has World Service streaming all day and all night!

When it comes to repetition in the World Service schedules, Paul Davis in Canada said that he dealt with this by downloading podcasts so that when a programme came on the radio he'd already heard, he took the opportunity to listen to something he'd missed.

But the Internet listeners weren't the only ones who contacted us. Several people in the United States, including Damien Lloyd Payn on the East Coast and Lulu Braunstein on the West told us they regularly listened via satellite radio in their cars.

Then there are the true globe-trotters such as the person who only identified him or herself as "rogue hippo". He or she must surely hold the record for the most varied means of catching BBC programmes. In Europe: Cable, FM radio and mediumwave plus the internet for downloading mp3s. In Asia: shortwave.

Listening on mobile phones seems to be growing. Jackie used hers to text Over to You and say she listens for three hours every morning this way. But she tunes to other stations in the afternoon when she finds the same programmes coming back on the BBC.

At the other end of the spectrum, Martin Pegrum in the Phillipines has three valve sets, the oldest of which dates from 1946. With a two hundred foot antenna, he can listen to one of these next to his bed. But he's also adapted to the new-fangled technology and feeds the BBC Internet stream through some of his classic sets. As he says: "The soft lights of the dials, the glow of the valves gives a very pleasing, warm dimension to the array of BBC World Service Broadcasts".

Martin sent us these great pictures:

Can anyone top that?!

Penny Vine is this week's producer of Over To You. Cathy Packe is away.

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the BBC World Service and its programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and at 02:40 on Sunday (GMT).

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44 144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog.