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BBC defends policy not to call Hamas 'terrorists' after criticism
BBC ^ | October 11, 2023 | Ian Youngs & Paul Glynn

Posted on 10/17/2023 7:48:35 PM PDT by DoodleBob

The BBC has defended its decision not to describe Hamas militants as "terrorists" in coverage of the recent attacks in Israel.

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the policy is "verging on disgraceful".

A BBC spokesperson noted it was a long-standing position for its reporters not to use the term themselves unless attributing it to someone else.

Veteran BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson said "calling someone a terrorist means you're taking sides".

But Mr Shapps said the BBC needs to locate its "moral compass".

"I actually think it is verging on disgraceful, this idea that there is some sort of equivalence, and they'll always say, well there's two sides," he told LBC. He said Hamas, who have "gone out and slaughtered innocent people, babies, festival-goers, pensioners", is a proscribed organisation in the UK - meaning the government officially views it as a terrorist organisation that is illegal to support.

"They are not freedom fighters, they are not militants, they are pure and simple terrorists and it's remarkable to go to the BBC website and still see them talking about gunmen and militants and not calling them terrorists," Mr Shapps said.

The corporation's editorial guidelines say the word "terrorist" can be "a barrier rather than an aid to understanding".

They say: "We should convey to our audience the full consequences of the act by describing what happened.

"We should use words which specifically describe the perpetrator such as 'bomber', 'attacker', 'gunman', 'kidnapper', 'insurgent' and 'militant'.

"We should not adopt other people's language as our own; our responsibility is to remain objective and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own assessments about who is doing what to whom."

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bbc; gaza; grantshapps; hamas; hams; ianyoungs; msm; paulglynn; terrorism; terrorists; unitedkingdom

1 posted on 10/17/2023 7:48:35 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob

Maybe they could call them combatants who target civilians, or combatants who mirder babies and the elderly and rape women.

That would specifically describe the perps.


2 posted on 10/17/2023 7:52:41 PM PDT by Chicory
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To: Chicory

They are not freedom fighters, they are not militants, they are pure and simple (Islamic) terrorists...


3 posted on 10/17/2023 7:55:57 PM PDT by caww (O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me......)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

4 posted on 10/17/2023 8:06:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: DoodleBob

The British are an odd people. They fight very hard. But then they treat their defeated enemies way too generously.

Napoleon caused misery all across Europe. But after Waterloo, many Brits called him a “troubled genius” who didn’t deserve his exile at St. Helena.

Then came the bloody trenches of WW I. Let the Kaiser be, said many Brits after that war ended. Let bygones be bygones.

Then came the horrors of WW II. Many Nazis were condemned to death, or to long prison terms. Some actually were hanged. But after a time, many Brits said let the rest of them go. Again, let bygones be bygones.

Very odd.


5 posted on 10/17/2023 8:22:50 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: Leaning Right

Lord Haw Haw would fit right in with today’s BBC.


6 posted on 10/17/2023 8:24:02 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DoodleBob

Freedom fighters. In this case, “freedom” means murder, rape, and torture of random innocent civilians. No big deal.


7 posted on 10/17/2023 8:25:04 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: DoodleBob
the BBC needs to locate its "moral compass".

The whole of western "journalism" has lost its compass.

8 posted on 10/17/2023 8:29:26 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson

In the ‘50s and ‘60s the western press printed everything Mao’s office gave them about China’s invasion of Tibet which resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million Tibetans.

They’ve never had a moral compass.


9 posted on 10/17/2023 8:32:44 PM PDT by TigersEye (Our Republic is under seige by globalist Marxists. Hold fast!)
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To: DoodleBob
Time to send BBC's family members into Hamas territory and see what happens to them.
10 posted on 10/17/2023 8:36:52 PM PDT by Chgogal (Welcome to Fuhrer Biden's Weaponized Fascist Banana Republic! It's the road to hell.)
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To: DoodleBob
This is why radical Islamic mutants will always come out on the winning side in the end.

When they go out and slaughter a couple of thousand people over the course of 48 hours, they don’t GAF what anyone calls them. Meanwhile, their victims and those who sympathize with their victims will spend weeks wringing their hands and clamoring about whether they’re called “terrorists,” “militants, “gunmen,” “assailants,” etc.

11 posted on 10/17/2023 9:29:46 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: DoodleBob

The neo-nazis appreciate BBC support.


12 posted on 10/17/2023 9:56:29 PM PDT by fuente (Liberty resides in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box--Fredrick Douglas)
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To: caww

Should we call them gentle friends who ride on unicorns? Would that stop them from holding hostages for torture negotiations?

Someone who invaded a home in Israel and killed a mother, father and three children because they wanted to terrorize people is a terrorist. The family had no political importance or military importance. Just people at home.

Story today: ynetnews 10/18/2023
The Kutz family, parents Livant and Aviv, and their three children - brothers Yonatan, 16, and Yiftach, 14, and their sister Rotem, 19, residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who were murdered by Hamas terrorists in their beds, were laid to rest on Tuesday side by side in a cemetery in Gan Yavne, as thousands of mourners came....


13 posted on 10/17/2023 11:00:43 PM PDT by frank ballenger (“My job is to inform, not to convince.” St. Bernadette Soubirous )
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To: DoodleBob

London is full of Mohammedens. They are afraid of offending them.


14 posted on 10/18/2023 1:38:09 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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To: DoodleBob

INDEED

John Simpson said “calling someone a terrorist means you’re taking sides”.


15 posted on 10/18/2023 7:09:44 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude
"London is full of Mohammedens."
Khan, the mayor of London is a Muslim. The West has let itself be willingly invaded. It won't be long before Brits are paying a Jizya tax for the joy of diversity.
16 posted on 10/18/2023 11:18:18 AM PDT by Hiddigeigei ("Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish," said Dionysus - Euripides)
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To: Hiddigeigei

“Khan, the mayor of London is a Muslim. The West has let itself be willingly invaded. It won’t be long before Brits are paying a Jizya tax for the joy of diversity.”

Yes. We have willingly done to ourselves what our enemies could never have accomplished.


17 posted on 10/18/2023 11:31:53 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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To: Chicory

Scotty. Remember Jim. It’s the BBC, the Commie Bolshevik Channel.

Jim. Ok. Let’s nuke them from orbit, just to be sure.


18 posted on 10/19/2023 5:00:48 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (Figures )
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