News Broadcasting
Top TV Presenters Unite to Help Free Detained Al Jazeera Staff
MUMBAI: Some of the world’s most prominent presenters from multiple news organisations have highlighted the importance of journalism by asking their viewers to “imagine a world where reality is distorted, imagine being kept in the dark about major world events, and imagine being silenced when speaking out could save your life”. The broadcast of the message comes ahead of the court appearance in Cairo on 24th March of three of the four Al Jazeera journalists who have been detained in Egypt for 85 days.
The rare coming together of news organisations in one film features CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, ITN’s Mark Austin and Julie Etchingham, Channel Seven Australia’s Mark Ferguson, and Al Jazeera English’s Shiulie Ghosh. The 40 second film ends with a collage of photos of journalists around the world muted as part of the Free AJ Staff campaign. The hashtag #FreeAJStaff has now had over 786 million impressions since it was launched during a day of action in Nairobi on 4th February.
Al Anstey, Managing Director of Al Jazeera English said: “we are very grateful to our colleagues around the world for their support of our staff detained in Egypt. Mohamed, Baher, and Peter are world-class journalists and are in detention for simply doing their job. We have seen massive support for them and for journalism from all corners of the globe, so the message of this film is clear – journalism matters and people have a right to be heard and to be informed.”
The broadcast comes just days after Egyptian President and Chief Justice Adly Mansour sent a letter to the parents of Peter Greste, telling them he will “spare no effort to work towards the speedy resolution of the case”. Al Jazeera English journalists Peter Greste, Baher Mohammed and Mohammed Fahmy have been detained by the Egyptian authorities since December 29th 2013. Al Jazeera Arabic’s Abdullah Elshamy has been detained since August 14th 2013.
The film is available for all media organisations and supporters to broadcast and upload online in support of media freedom worldwide.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI: Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
