12 journalists killed covering Israel-Hamas war | Top 50 US and global website rankings

And cartoonist Steve Bell has been fired by The Guardian (more to come on that story)

Oct 16, 2023

Good morning and welcome to your daily media news briefing on Monday 16 October.

The extraordinary death toll of journalists killed covering the war between Israel and Hamas continued to rise.

At least 12 have been killed so far with a Reuters journalist working in Lebanon the latest to lose their life in a missile strike that came from the direction of Israel.

We have a tally of those killed and missing here. All but one appear to have been victims of Israeli counter-strikes following the initial Hamas attacks.

Meanwhile, Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell has lost his job after filing a cartoon about the conflict which editors apparently saw as anti-semitic. We’ve spoken to cartoonists and Steve Bell himself and will have chapter and verse on this story later today.

Our latest ranking of the world’s top-50 English-language news websites shows traffic down across most of the leading publishers year on year.

Changes to Facebook's algorithm, news avoidance and shifting audience habits (towards social media and away from publisher sites) could all be playing a role in this trend. I will be interesting to see what impact coverage of events in the Middle East has on this month’s figures.

We also have your news diary for the week ahead with Conservatives facing two by-election tests on Thursday where current Tory majorities could well be overturned.

Jobs of the week

Human Dignity Trust: Programmes Associate (Africa) - London
Morning Star: Web Assistant - remote
Adwanted UK: Deputy editor/senior reporter - London

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News in brief

The BBC is expected to this week announce changes to news budgets involving cuts to Newsnight, moving more of its news teams out of London, and reinvesting more in digital. (Financial Times)

Pro-Palestinian protesters threw red paint over BBC Broadcasting House on Saturday, arguing it has "blood on its hands" from its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Others have vocally criticised the BBC over the past week for not calling Hamas terrorists. (The Guardian)

BBC Persian staff in London are increasingly being threatened, with a “marked spike” in harassment since coverage of the protests at Mahsa Amini’s death in custody last year although such attacks have been going on for more than a decade. (The Guardian)

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