Cabinet minister Steve Barclay stepped up pressure on the BBC on Thursday for not calling Hamas terrorists.
The Health Secretary told of his “concern” that the Corporation was not using this description for the group proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.
After hundreds of Israelis were killed by Hamas in a series of attacks, he told LBC Radio: “There is no question that these are terrorists.
“I don’ t really think there is a debate on it.”
But the BBC has rejected criticism over its decision not to call Hamas “terrorists” after it was labelled “disgraceful” by the Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
It is a long-standing editorial position of the broadcaster to use the word “terrorist” carefully, with its editorial guidelines describing such language as potentially a “barrier rather than an aid to understanding”.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis warned that while guidelines may have been “borne out of well-intentioned aspirations to appear accurate and impartial”, the “depth of the terror that Hamas has inflicted upon innocent people across Israel in recent days is not in doubt”.
But veteran BBC foreign and world affairs correspondent John Simpson tweeted: “British politicians know perfectly well why the BBC avoids the word ‘terrorist’, and over the years plenty of them have privately agreed with it. Calling someone a terrorist means you’re taking sides and ceasing to treat the situation with due impartiality.”
However, former senior BBC journalist Jon Sopel said: “If this doesn’t describe an act of pure terror by terrorists what does? The guidelines that I followed for years are no longer fit for purpose, and sadly have the effect of sanitising.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We always take our use of language very seriously. Anyone watching or listening to our coverage will hear the word ‘terrorist’ used many times - we attribute it to those who are using it, for example, the UK Government.
“This is an approach that has been used for decades, and is in line with that of other broadcasters.”
