The BBC and terrorists
Posted by Jerry Scharf
Common Sense and Wonder
BBC Calls Terrorism Terrorism
(Patrick Goodenough-CNSNews.com International Editor)
(CNSNews.com) - The British Broadcasting Corporation Thursday dropped its customary stance on using the words "terrorist" and "terror" in its coverage of the deadly bombings in London.
The words were used - without attribution -- throughout the day on the BBC Online website, with headlines like "London rocked by terror attacks," "Terror security is stepped up" and "Rail travel hit by terror blasts."
News stories included references to "terror attacks on London" and "a series of terrorist attacks on London's public transport system."
Media watchdogs have for years taken issue with the BBC, along with other news organizations such as Reuters, for a reluctance to call deadly attacks against civilians terrorism.
In its coverage of Palestinian suicide bombings, for instance, the broadcaster uses words like "bomber" and "militant" to describe those who detonate bombs that kill and maim Israeli civilians.
Last year a group called BBCWatch.com criticized the BBC's reluctance to use the words "terrorist" in reference to Palestinian suicide bombings.
"We consider that the way in which the BBC refrains from labeling as 'terrorist' certain groups attacking Israelis is discriminatory, inaccurate and impartial," the group said in a report.
Another group, Honest Reporting, noted an instance in late 2001 when the BBC did not describe suicide bombings which killed 26 civilians in Jerusalem and Haifa as "terrorism," but then used the word "terror" in a headline describing retaliatory Israeli raids in Gaza.
BBC editorial guidelines warn staff against "the careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments."
"The word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding," the guidelines say. "We should try to avoid the term, without attribution. We should let other people characterize while we report the facts as we know them."
"We should use words which specifically describe the perpetrator such as 'bomber,' 'attacker,' 'gunman,' 'kidnapper,' 'insurgent,' and 'militant.' 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."
The Malki Foundation is a charity set up by the family of a 15-year-old girl killed by Palestinian terrorists in an Aug. 2001 suicide bombing in a Jerusalem pizza parlor
Writing on the group's website Thursday, Malka Chana Roth's father Arnold said "what happened in London today was not the act of 'militants' or of 'activists' ... Let's be clear about the fact that this morning's victims in London were the direct targets of terrorists."
Roth said the BBC had for years "performed semantic acrobatics to explain why the murderers of our children are 'militant' 'activists' who must be 'understood.' "
"Terror, it is clear, is the word your audience expects you to use when the victims are your colleagues, neighbors and friends," he said.
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