Media Quotes of the Week: From 65 journalists and media staff killed in 2020 to the Mail on why the Society of Editors lost its head in Royal row

International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger, after the IFJ's 30th report on journalists and media staff killed worldwide during 2020 revealed 65 killings during targeted attacks, bomb attacks and cross–fire incidents in 16 countries: "The ruthless reign of crime barons in Mexico, the violence of extremists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, as well as the intolerance of hardliners in India and the Philippines have contributed to the continued bloodshed in the media"

• The figure of 65 killings in 2020 is 17 more killed than in 2019 (49), and bring the total to 2,680 journalists and media workers who lost their lives to violence in the world since 1990

Telegraph editor Chris Evans, in an email seen by the Guardian, on a proposal to link journalists pay to the popularity of articles: “It seems only right that those who attract and retain the most subscribers should be the most handsomely paid.”

• NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet told the Guardian: “The Telegraph’s plan to introduce clickbait scoring to pay and reward journalists is crass and shows scant regard for the importance of diverse quality journalism."

• Telegraph head of digital news Catherine Bentley on Twitter: "Our strategy is to offer subscribers the same high-quality journalism every time they visit us, by thinking ambitiously on digital publishing, by increasing engagement and decreasing churn. It's the antithesis of clickbait journalism."

Simon Kelner in the I: "Piers Morgan is a journalist at heart. Yes, he loves the greasepaint and the celebrity status, but his qualities are those of journalist. His flaws, too. His shouty, editorialised style is clearly not to everyone’s taste, but he is an original presence, and one that ITV will find difficult, if not impossible, to replace."

Jon Allsop in the Columbia Journalism Review: "If anything is true of the British media industry, it is that rich, white motormouths with tedious views about free speech and the royal family will never want for a professional home."

David Olusoga in the Observer: "Part of the problem is that in the Venn diagram that includes those two groups – black people and tabloid journalists – the circles barely overlap. The press, like many of Britain’s institutions, has an appalling record on diversity and inclusion. Black people make up 3% of the UK population yet account for just 0.2% of journalists. This failure means that black Britons simply aren’t in the tabloid newsrooms to point racism out; they certainly aren’t in the editor’s chair to weed it out."

David Aaronovitch on Twitter: "It seems to me that journalism awards ceremonies now only exist to give people something to pull out of. Maybe time to try some other way of recognising excellence?"

Mark Duell on MailOnline after Ian Murray resigned as executive director of the Society of Editors in the wake of the row of his defence of the British press against claims in the Harry and Meghan interview it was racist: "The Society of Editors was facing the gravest crisis in its 24-year history this week after left-wing newspaper editors drove the society's executive director out of his job for standing up against Meghan Markle's claims that the British press is systematically racist."

A senior tabloid executive, quoted but not named by MailOnline: "Harry and Meghan are trying to shut down their press critics by smearing them as racist. And it seems some misguided left-wing editors agree with them. A racism accusation trumps free speech every time. That is truly frightening. If the Society of Editors won't even defend free speech, what is the point of it? Apart from some rather pointless awards which are just an ego-trip for editors and journalists anyway."

Dr Paul Lashmar, head of the department of journalism at City University also on MailOnline: "I think Ian Murray's comments were tone deaf, they're not in touch with the world as it is now, and particularly for young people. And I think what Ian Murray's resignation allows for is perhaps someone younger who is more in touch with what's happening across journalism and diversity of views and being more sensitive to how people of diversity feel about the way things are framed."