London: Around 250 protesters gathered outside the BBC’s main headquarters in London this week over the British broadcaster’s “continued refusal to call Hamas terrorists”. Demonstrators at the event, organized by Jewish groups, chanted “Hamas, terrorists” and “Shame on You” at the broadcaster for making the editorial decision to refer to Hamas as militants, or a militant group. Many waved Israeli flags and others held posters carrying pictures of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas.
Organizers, the National Jewish Assembly, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that “this is no time [for] the BBC to call Hamas anything but terrorists”. UK defense minister Grant Shapps also said last week that the BBC should follow the “law” and call Hamas a terrorist organization, with the government having proscribed it as such in 2021.
But veteran reporter John Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor, said that the corporation would be “taking sides” if it called Hamas terrorists. The BBC said in a statement that it had given “careful consideration” to its coverage of the conflict.
“The BBC, along with many other UK and global news organizations, does use the word ‘terrorist’, but attributes it. We have made clear to our audiences that Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organization by the UK and other governments,” it added. Pro-Palestinian groups have also targeted the BBC, covering Broadcasting House headquarters in red paint last week and accusing it of having “blood on its hands”.
