The Guardian·2026-02-25
Israel responsible for two-thirds of record 129 press killings in 2025, says CPJA record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work in 2025, two-thirds of them by Israeli forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). It was the second consecutive year in which killings of members of the press reached unprecedented levels, and the second year running in which Israel was responsible for roughly two-thirds of the total, the New York-based independent organisation, which documents attacks on journalists worldwide, said in its annual report published on Wednesday. Israeli fire killed 86 journalists last year, the CPJ said, the majority of them Palestinians reporting from Gaza. The toll also included 31 media workers killed in a strike on a Houthi media centre in Yemen, described by the group as the second deadliest attack o
The Guardian·2026-02-25
George Bennett obituaryIn 1963, my friend George Bennett, who has died aged 91, saw an advertisement for a talks writer in the African section of what was then called BBC External Services and is now the World Service. This began his 26-year career in broadcasting to Africa, the last 13 of which he served as head of the BBC’s output to Africa in English, Swahili, Hausa and Somali. George had many skills. Probably the best of all was his ability to find talented people to make interesting radio programmes. Production staff in the African Service in the 1970s and early 80s were unimpressed by the way that the Bush House newsroom reported on Africa. As a result, its two English language daily news programmes, Focus on Africa and Network Africa, began to recruit their own team of stringers. This practice transformed
The Guardian·2026-02-25
BBC to conduct fast-track investigation into broadcasting of racial slur from BaftasThe BBC is to undertake a fast-track investigation into how a racial slur broadcast during its coverage of the Bafta film awards was not edited out, amid rising anger inside the corporation over the error. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has now instructed the corporation’s complaints unit to investigate what the BBC describes as a “serious mistake”. The Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson could be heard shouting the N-word as the Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for special visual effects on Sunday. The BBC, Bafta and the independent producers involved have been facing severe criticism over the failure and scrambling to explain it. Figures inside the BBC remain angry and confused over how the coverage containing the slur remained on iPla
The Guardian·2026-02-25
US news site Politico to launch in Australia, aiming to bring policy focus and ‘new angles’ to CanberraThe US political news site Politico will establish an Australian outlet later this year, bringing its brand of insider politics and policy news to the Canberra press gallery. Ryan Heath, an Australian journalist who launched Politico’s Brussels Playbook a decade ago, is the edition’s launch editor. A newsletter covering federal parliamentary politics and policy, Canberra Playbook, will launch when parliament returns from a winter break. “Australians need journalism that both explains power dynamics and connects the dots globally,” Heath said. “In this era of great power and technology upheavals, Politico’s ability to examine Australia’s most important security and trade relationships is unrivaled. We take politicians and policy seriously – it’s all we do. We will bring that depth and new a
