Israeli President Isaac Herzog Attacks BBC In Meeting With Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Israeli President Isaac Herzog took the opportunity of having an audience with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to attack the BBC’s decision to abstain from using the word “terrorist” in reference to Hamas.

Amidst the backdrop of the deadliest surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, and the subsequent military campaign on Gaza by the Israeli forces, the BBC finds itself at the centre of a fiery debate regarding its editorial stance.

The longstanding policy of the BBC to abstain from using the term “terrorist” has sparked intense criticism, particularly in light of recent events in the Middle East.

Herzog remarked: “I want to raise the issue of what I call objective or unobstructed objective reporting about this tragedy… the way the BBC characterises Hamas is a distortion of the facts. We are dealing with one of the worst terrorist organisations in the world.

Referring to the BBC’s position as a publicly funded broadcaster in the UK, Herzog went on to imply that while “in modern democracies” governments shouldn’t intervene with reporting, that Sunak should intervene to have a “correction” issued.

“I know that in modern democracies, such as ours and yours, you cannot intervene per se,” he said. “But because the BBC has a certain linkage and it is known as Britain as such, all over the world there has to be an outcry so that there will be a correction and Hamas will be defined as a terrorist organisation. What else do they need to see to understand that this is an atrocious terrorist organisation.”

The news comes as Israel tries to ban Qatari news organisation Al Jazeera from the country over its reporting, a move criticised by free press advocacy groups who stated the importance of “plurality” in a country’s media.

The BBC’s reluctance to brand Hamas or any other entity as a “terrorist” organisation stems from its editorial guidelines which champion the use of descriptive language over assumptive terminology.

The guidelines articulate: “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’.”

Elaborating further on the importance of linguistic objectivity, the guidelines continue: “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.”

This editorial policy, however, has led to a chasm between those who expect the BBC to align with political expectations and those who defend the corporation’s commitment to maintain objective reporting.