Revealed: How the BBC repeatedly called past atrocities terror attacks
Revealed: How the BBC has repeatedly called past atrocities terror attacks while refusing to use the phrase in reports about Hamas
- Stories about London Bridge, Westminster and Paris attacks feature the words
Published: 22:01, 17 October 2023 | Updated: 22:45, 17 October 2023
The BBC[2] has repeatedly labelled past atrocities as terror attacks while refusing to use the phrase in its reports about Hamas[3] slaughtering Israeli[4] civilians, a MailOnline investigation has revealed.
Numerous reports on the BBC News website which are still visible online describe incidents in the UK and overseas as terror attacks in headlines and in the text of stories.
Stories about the London[5] Bridge, Westminster and Paris attacks[6] all feature the words without quotation marks or attribution.
The BBC has faced furious criticism over its refusal to describe the Hamas killing of around 1,300 Israelis, many of them civilians, as terrorism.
Fury mounted today when it was revealed that a headline on the BBC website described the shooting of two Swedish football supporters in Brussels last night as a 'terror attack'.
Numerous reports on the BBC News website which are still visible online describe incidents in the UK and overseas as terror attacks in headlines and in the text of stories
The BBC has rushed in recent days to defend its editorial guidelines which state that reports should 'not use the term "terrorist" without attribution'
The BBC has faced furious criticism over its refusal to describe the Hamas killing of around 1,300 Israelis, many of them civilians, as terrorism.
Pictured: Israeli soldiers place the coffins of five family members of the Kutz family during their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel
Meanwhile the BBC is not believed to have used the phrase to describe the slaughter of civilians including children by terror group Hamas which rules Gaza.
The BBC has rushed in recent days to defend its editorial guidelines which state that reports should 'not use the term "terrorist" without attribution'.
But MailOnline has found that the BBC News Style guide also makes clear that it is permissible to label some incidents as a 'terror attack'.
The guide states: 'While care is needed when describing perpetrators, an action or event can be described as a terror attack or an act of terror.
'When we do use the term, we should strive to do so with consistency in the stories we report across all our services, and in a way that does not undermine our reputation for objectivity and accuracy.
'It is also very important that we strive for consistency across the international and UK facing sites. If a BBC World story uses very measured language but a UK version does not, a user will rightly question the different approaches.'
BBC stories unearthed by MailOnline include one on January 14, 2015, with a headline describing the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris where gunmen slaughtered staff at the satirical magazine in Paris as 'three days of terror'.
At least seven BBC News website reports about the Westminster atrocity in March 2017 which killed six people including the attacker and injured 50 people, also describe it as a 'terror attack'.
Fury mounted today when it was revealed that a headline on the BBC website described the shooting of two Swedish football supporters in Brussels last night as a 'terror attack'. Pictured: A Belgian police officer secures the area where the gunman is neutralised in Brussels
At least seven BBC News website reports about the Westminster atrocity in March 2017 which killed six people including the attacker and injured 50 people, also describe it as a 'terror attack'.
Pictured: A police officer gestures as he stands guard in front of the house in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels
They include a story the day after the killings, headlined - London attack: Four dead in Westminster terror attack.
Other stories using the words 'terror attack' to describe the Westminster killings appeared in September and October 2018, and in March and November 2021.
Another report on July 2015 about the 7/7 bombings which killed 52 people in London on July 7, 2005, described it as 'the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil'.
A BBC headline in July last year referred to 'Paris terror attacks' in relation to the conviction of 20 men over shootings which left 130 dead in France's capital city in November 2015.
As recently as June 3 this year a BBC report referred to victims of the 'London Bridge terror attack' being remembered on its sixth anniversary.
But MailOnline was unable to find any BBC headlines referring to the Hamas massacres in Israel as 'a terror attack' or an 'act of terror'.
Lord Eric Pickles, the chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel said: 'Our national broadcaster has become a national embarrassment over their refusal to label Hamas terrorists.
'The only reason they are not calling Hamas terrorists is just plain stubbornness.
A large crowd of protesters cheered and chanted outside BBC Broadcasting House in London on Monday to protest against the corporation not describing Hamas as 'terrorists'
The crowd shouted 'Hamas, terrorists' and 'BBC, shame on you' as they waited to hear from speakers
Lord Eric Pickles, (pictured) the chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel said: 'Our national broadcaster has become a national embarrassment over their refusal to label Hamas terrorists
'They've called terrorist organisations terrorists numerous times in the past, but this time they've decided to ignore what is an accepted description of people who inflict terror, decapitate babies, and engage in rape.'
A large crowd of protesters cheered and chanted outside BBC Broadcasting House in London on Monday to protest against the corporation not describing Hamas as 'terrorists'.
The crowd shouted 'Hamas, terrorists' and 'BBC, shame on you' as they waited to hear from speakers.
One protester stood on the railings next to the BBC building and led chants using a megaphone as people in the crowd waved Israeli flags.
The demonstration was staged after a Downing Street spokesperson insisted that there was nothing in Ofcom rules to prevent the BBC describing Hamas as 'terrorists'.
The prime minister's spokesperson dismissed fears that using the word would breach the BBC's impartiality rules and pointed out that the corporation had previously described attacks on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and 9/11 as terrorism.
The intervention came after Tories complained to Ofcom about the broadcaster's handling of the situation.
It was revealed today that the Board of Deputies which is the UK's largest Jewish community organisation lodged an official complaint with the communications regulator after getting nowhere with its complaints to the BBC about the failure to describe Hamas as 'terrorists'.
One protester stood on the railings next to the BBC building and led chants using a megaphone as people in the crowd waved Israeli flags
The demonstration was staged after a Downing Street spokesperson insisted that there was nothing in Ofcom rules to prevent the BBC describing Hamas as 'terrorists'
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Radio 4 Today programme host Mishal Husain clashed about the issue last Friday after he said the Corporation needed to 'locate its moral compass'.
The BBC press office did not respond with a statement after being approached about its past headlines.
But a BBC spokesperson noted last week that it was a long-standing position for its reporters not to use the term 'terrorist' unless attributing it to someone else.
The BBC's World affairs editor John Simpson wrote last week that it was 'simply not the BBC's job to tell people who to support and who to condemn - who are the good guys and who are the bad guys'.