Craig Simpson
24 September 2024 6:45pm
The BBC has been criticised for refusing to call Hezbollah terrorists in its coverage of conflict in the Middle East.
In BBC reports on Israeli operations against Hezbollah, the group has been described as a “militia” or an organisation “considered” to be terrorist.
The reporting has followed BBC guidelines, which stipulate that groups such as Hezbollah should be referred to as “militants” rather than terrorists.
They say journalists should “not use the term ‘terrorist’ without attribution”. The BBC will instead use terms that are less “emotive”, such as “gunmen” and “militants”.
The guidelines provoked anger in the wake of the Oct 7 attacks on Israel, when the BBC was criticised for not directly calling Hamas terrorists.
The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism has voiced concern about what it described as the corporation’s “resistance” to the term.
A spokesman said: “In the wake of the barbaric Oct 7 attacks, when Hamas murdered over 1,200 Israelis and took some 250 hostage, the BBC showed an unbelievable level of resistance to calling Hamas what it is – a terrorist organisation.
“Similarly, Hezbollah is a proscribed anti-Semitic genocidal terror group, and it began attacking Israel from across the border in Lebanon on Oct 8 with no respite.
“Again, the BBC is stubbornly failing to describe Hezbollah in legally accurate terms. Using any other descriptor risks legitimising or downplaying the actions and rhetoric of this and other terror groups. British Jews should be able to expect better from our national broadcaster.”
A spokesman for Camera Arabic, which monitors the BBC’s output on the Middle East, said: “We would like the BBC to cover Hezbollah as well in accordance with the UK’s own foreign policy, namely its designation as a terrorist organisation.”
Founded in the 1980s, Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim organisation that has called for the destruction of Israel and carried out a number of terrorist attacks.
BBC reports have frequently called Hezbollah an “Iran-backed militia”, or similar formulation. Some stories on the BBC website relating to Hezbollah, but not all, say that “Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organisation by the UK, the US and others”.
In the wake of the controversy after Oct 7, the BBC said it would no longer routinely call Hamas “militants”. Reports then began referring to it as a “terrorist group proscribed by the UK Government” and other formulations that attributed the claims of terrorism to a body outside the BBC.
In an earlier debate over the guidelines, the BBC’s John Simpson defended the policy, saying: “We regularly point out that the British and other governments have condemned Hamas as a terrorist organisation, but that’s their business.
“We also run interviews with guests and quote contributors who describe Hamas as terrorists. The key point is that we don’t say it in our voice. Our business is to present our audiences with the facts, and let them make up their own minds.”
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