Voice of America (VOA) has reportedly clarified one of its guidelines for Middle East war coverage, telling journalists that they are free to call Hamas a “terrorist” group and Hamas members “terrorists.”
VOA does describe the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of Israel, which left at least 1,200 people dead and more than 240 taken as hostages, as a terrorist attack or act of terror. But for two months, the state-funded news service has avoided the “terrorist” label when referring to Hamas and its members, except in direct quotations from sources.
Instead, VOA’s editor for news standards advised that news staff use terms such as “militant” or “fighter” to describe those who breached the Israel-Gaza border to unleash a spree of killing and kidnapping in Israeli towns.
“This practice conforms with the VOA News Standards and Best Practices guide and current usage by the wires and major U.S. news organizations, bearing in mind that the language including terrorism is often used to demonize individuals and groups with whom the speaker disagrees. Useful alternatives are militant group or militants or fighters,” according to the the VOA guidance obtained by National Review. “In this case, it would be the Hamas militant group or Hamas militants.”
In a memo sent to staff members on Tuesday, acting VOA director John Lippman said the editorial team never actually prohibited using the term.
“Correcting guidance that was issued October 10, 2023, and reissued on October 20, 2023, there is NO prohibition in our Best Practices Guide against our labeling the people and organizations that commit acts of terror as ’terrorists’ or against using the word ’terrorism' in our stories without attribution,” the memo read, according to National Review.
The memo comes after the word choice in VOA newsrooms drew criticism from Republican lawmakers, who argued that such practice was at odds with the news network’s own reporting principle.
“We seriously question how VOA’s editorial policy advances the interests of the American taxpayers who generously fund this news organization every year,” a group of Republican Senators said in a Nov. 7 letter to VOA’s parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
An editorially independent news organization, VOA is funded entirely by the federal government through the USAGM. Its budget for fiscal year 2023 was $267.5 million.
“We believe that VOA’s editorial policy against the use of the term ’terrorist‘ contradicts VOA’s principle of providing ’accurate, objective, and comprehensive' news,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), a ranking member of Senate’s foreign relations subcommittee.
The Republicans then raised questions on a potential “editorial double standard,” noting that VOA already has “established a history” of using the term “terrorist” in reporting to describe U.S.-designated terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al-Qaida.
“VOA has created an editorial double standard in which it appears to accept the description of the Islamic State, al-Qaida, and other officially designated terrorist groups as terrorists, but not Iran-backed Hamas, which explicitly seeks to destroy Israel and kill Jews,” the letter read.
Six other Senators signed the letter, namely Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). They all sit on committees with jurisdiction over the USAGM’s funding.
While the VOA said there was never an actual prohibition on the term “terrorist” when referring to Hamas, the Senators said there is at least one case of a VOA editor enforcing the policy by taking the word “terrorists” out of an Israel-based journalist’s report.
The Oct. 30 video story, crafted by freelance reporter Linda Gradstein, focused on a psychological therapy program for those who survived the massacre carried out by Hamas at the Nova Music Festival. In the original version of the story, one of the survivors was described as having tried to avoid “Hamas terrorists” at the festival site.
However, a finalized script changed the wording, replacing Hamas “terrorist” with Hamas “militant.”
“There were no other changes made to the script,” the Senators wrote.
