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On the 20th October, we witnessed a shift, as BBC Director-General Tim Davie met with The Board of Deputies of British Jews to discuss the BBC’s persistent refusal to call Hamas ‘terrorists’. After the meeting Mr Davie confirmed that it was no longer BBC practice to refer to Hamas as ‘militants’ – an enormous step forward in presenting a clearer representation of the civilian attacks perpetrated by the terrorist group.

Moving forward the BBC will refer to Hamas, either as only ‘Hamas’ or  'a terrorist organisation proscribed by the UK government and others'.

So let’s explore this. 

On the one hand, the move symbolises a positive first step, an acknowledgement that Hamas are not simply ‘militants’, and that the BBC remains open to accuracy in reporting.  This is a good first move. 

And yet, the attribution “proscribed by the UK” feels intentionally caveated, a security blanket that simply does not report the cold hard truth. That truth being, Hamas murdered, severed, tortured, burnt, and kidnapped civilians. They are terrorists. They are the definition of ‘terrorists’ and should be titled ‘terrorists’ as such without additional justification.

Today, Hamas are holding more than 200 people hostage, 40 of whom are children. Their terror continues to haunt, and political terminology and legal jargon feels undeniably disrespectful to those directly impacted by the heinous crimes of Hamas. 

The BBC doesn’t require other groups to need context, for example on the 29th August – Islamic State are called a ‘terror group’ unapologetically. -  as are al Qaeda  (3 August 2022) There were no caveats in the 11 September 2023 reporting about 9/11 where BBC News called it “the deadliest terror attack”  not “a terror attack as proscribed by the American government”. When editorial decisions are being made, why is there no consistency? It’s hard to not correlate the double standard and what it could potentially imply. 

So BBC, we urge you again to call Hamas ‘terrorists’ or a ‘terror group’ as you have labeled Isis and al Qaeda.  Report this moment with the accuracy the archives of our collective history deserves.

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