Below is the end-of-month count of articles appearing on the BBC News website’s Middle East page according to the countries/territories defined by the BBC as making up that region per the profiles on that page (but with the BBC category “Palestinian Territories” separated into the Gaza Strip and the PA controlled areas).
As in previous months (March, April and May), the count relates to three categories of articles – headline, non-headline and features – with the total representing both the appearance of a report and the number of days it stayed up on the site.
As has been the case since we began this monthly count, Syria understandably once again received the most BBC coverage throughout June, with Iran – where elections took place – coming second. In third place came Egypt, which continues to experience considerable unrest and in fourth place was Iraq where – as was the case last month too – sectarian violence continues to dominate the news.
Despite the departure of two members of the BBC’s Jerusalem Bureau at the end of May, Israel still managed to come in fifth in terms of coverage. Nevertheless, that is an improvement on March and April, when Israel came second only to Syria.
The rise in comparison with previous months of the number of reports relating to events in the Palestinian Authority controlled areas is largely due to coverage of Rami Hamdallah’s appointment to – and subsequent resignation from – the post of PA prime Minister during the month of June. The majority of BBC reporting from the Gaza Strip in June related to the ‘Arab Idol’ TV reality show.
