BBC Resists Pressure to Call Hamas a Terrorist Group

The BBC's headquarters in London, in an undated photo. Ian West/PA

The BBC has refused to give in to pressure after it came under criticism for not calling Hamas a terrorist group.

The public broadcaster called Hamas members militants in its reports on the Israel-Hamas War that broke out during the weekend after the latter launched unprovoked missile attacks from the Gaza Stripe and seized Israeli towns.

Ministers, including Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, as well as Jewish leaders, have slammed the corporation, with Mr. Shapps saying it’s time for it to “get the moral compass out.”

The BBC has defended its use of language, saying the approach has been in use “for decades.”

Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK, launched attacks on Israel on Saturday, prompting Israel to declare war.

As of Wednesday morning, some 1,200 Israelis have been killed, most of whom were civilians, and more than 2,700 were wounded, according to LTC (res.) Jonathan Conricus, the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The IDF have also said they have “neutralised” hundreds of terrorists.

The BBC’s style guide requires journalists not to use the word “terrorist” without attribution while describing a perpetrator, saying the term can be “a barrier rather than an aid to understanding.”

Reporters are told to use more specific words such as “bomber, attacker, gunman, kidnapper, insurgent, and militant.”

Shapps: Time for the BBC to Get The Moral Compass Out

Speaking to LBC, on Wednesday, the defence secretary said he believes the idea that Israel and Hamas are equal is “verging on disgraceful.”

“What Hamas has done as a proscribed terrorist organisation—meaning that they are illegal in Britain, it’s illegal to support them—is to have gone out and slaughtered innocent people, babies, festival goers, pensioners. Not freedom fighters, they are not militants. They are pure and simple terrorists,” Mr. Shapps said.

“And it’s remarkable this morning to go to the BBC website and still see them talking about gunmen and militants and not calling them terrorists. I don’t know what’s going on there. But I think that it’s time to get the moral compass out,” he said.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London on Sept. 24, 2023. Stefan Rousseau/PA

Mr. Shapps also told ITV News that Hamas is “very different from the Israeli State,” which would “try everything they can to avoid harm to civilians.”

According to the Jewish Chronicle, the culture secretary has also questioned the BBC’s style guide, telling attendants at a solidarity service for Israel at St John’s Wood Synagogue on Tuesday evening that she had raised the issue with BBC Director General Tim Davie.

The criticisms came after an unverified i24 News report that claimed there were families gunned down and babies beheaded in a town near Gaza.

BBC: Audiences Can Judge

A BBC spokesperson said, “We always take our use of language very seriously.”

The spokesperson said the word “terrorist” has been “used many times during its coverage with attributions such as the UK government.

“This is an approach that has been used for decades, and is in line with that of other broadcasters,” the spokesperson said.

“The BBC is an editorially independent broadcaster whose job is to explain precisely what is happening ‘on the ground’ so our audiences can make their own judgement.”

The BBC’s world affairs editor, John Simpson, said using “terrorist” would make the report partial.

“British politicians know perfectly well why the BBC avoids the word ‘terrorist’, and over the years, plenty of them have privately agreed with it,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Calling someone a terrorist means taking sides and ceasing to treat the situation with due impartiality. The BBC’s job is to place the facts before its audience and let them decide what they think, honestly and without ranting,” he said.

Critics: ‘Militant’ Not Accurate

However, Jon Sopel, the BBC’s former North America editor, said Militant is “not the right word“ for those who were ”decapitating babies.”

He argued that the guidelines are “no longer fit for purpose, and sadly have the effect of sanitising.”

Also citing the reported murder, rape, and beheadings, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said while media guidelines that restrict the use of “terrorist” may be “borne out of well-intentioned aspirations to appear accurate and impartial,” there is a point “at which the failure to use the term ’terrorist', is itself a failure of accuracy and impartiality.”

Police officer walks near a destroyed police station in Sderot, Israel, on Oct. 8, 2023. Amir Levy/Getty Images

“The true motives of Hamas could not be clearer. It seeks the murder of Jews and the annihilation of the Jewish state. Their charter says as much. Hamas is no different to ISIS,” he wrote on X,

“Did decent, moral people seek to justify the actions of 9/11, 7/7, or the Manchester Arena bombing?”

The rabbi argues that it should be “painfully obvious that there is no moral equivalence between those whose motive is to deliberately target innocent civilians in cold blood and those whose motive is to remove the threat of such murderers.”

“The fact that this discussion is necessary at all is a clear sign that we are losing our moral compass and of the warped nature of the depths to which discourse on Israel has sunk,” he said.

He urged broadcasters and others to be “unequivocal” when describing Hamas.

“This is not ’resistance‘ or ’struggle’. It is terrorism. To purposefully avoid that word is to wilfully mislead,” he asserted.