News Broadcasting
BBC condemns deliberate assault on journalists in Yemen
MUMBAI: BBC is protesting against the deliberate assault of a journalist and cameraman near the University of Sanaa in Yemen.
BBC Arabic‘s correspondent in Yemen Abdullah Gorab and cameraman Mohammed Omran were beaten and injured by supporters of a government official while reporting on protests calling for the departure of President Ali Abdullah Salih in which protesters clashed with government supporters.
Ghorab explained that he was a BBC reporter and was then attacked and abused by a group of people. He was cut between the eyes, suffered a bleeding nose and has bruises on his back and other parts of his body.
Omran had his mobile and watch taken. Ghorab was pulled by the attackers towards the car of Hafez Meiyad, a Yemeni government official, who is known to be close to the Yemeni President.
Meiyad blamed Ghorab for giving Yemen a bad reputation. Two police officers then intervened and asked the attackers to let him go. They did so and left in Meiyad‘s car.
Abdullah received medical attention from a doctor and was told that he will need a further check up to see if his swollen nose is broken.
BBC director of global news Peter Horrocks said, “The BBC condemns this assault on our journalists who are trying their best in very difficult circumstances to report on the situation in Yemen. We call on the Yemeni government to ensure the safety of all journalists in the area and we will be taking up our concerns directly with the Yemeni authorities.”
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:Â 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.
