On the morning of September 8th the BBC News website began reporting on what was originally described as a “Jerusalem shooting attack”.
Throughout the day that report was amended seven times and its current version – credited to David Gritten and Yolande Knell – is headlined “Six Israelis killed by Palestinian gunmen at Jerusalem bus stop”.
Readers are told that the attack at Ramot Junction in which six civilians were murdered was praised by Hamas but not that the phrase “natural response” has long been used by that terrorist organisation when lauding attacks and is not a product of the current war. BBC audiences were also not informed that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad likewise praised the attack or that Hamas (and its supporters) also promoted incitement to further attacks.
“There was no immediate claim from any armed groups, although Hamas praised the attack.”
And:
“Hamas praised what it called the “heroic and exceptional operation by two Palestinian resistance fighters”.
Without admitting it had organised the attack, Hamas said it was a “natural response to the crimes of the occupation [Israel] and the genocide it is waging against our people”.
The group has been fighting a war with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip for almost two years, triggered by its attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.”
As we see, although the BBC had no qualms about providing amplification for Hamas’ false claim of “genocide”, it did not bother to update its report to inform audiences that Hamas did indeed claim responsibility for the attack the following day.
In line with longstanding BBC editorial policy, all references to terrorists or terrorism in Knell and Gritten’s report come in the form of quotes. [emphasis added]
“Israeli police said “two terrorists arrived in a vehicle” and opened fire towards a bus stop at Ramot Junction, on the city’s northern outskirts. An off-duty soldier and a civilian returned fire, “neutralising” the attackers, it added.”
“During a visit to the scene, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel was in “an intense war against terrorism on several fronts”.”
“The Israeli military said soldiers were encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah to “thwart terrorism and strengthen the defence effort”.”
“Israeli police spokesman Lt Dean Elsdunne said: “The terrorists arrived by vehicle… and deliberately opened fire on a number of civilians who were waiting at that busy bus stop to start their day.”
“In a statement posted on social media, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said: “Innocent citizens, children and adults, were murdered and injured in cold blood on a bus in the streets of a city at the hands of evil terrorists.”
In addition to those Israeli sources, Knell and Gritten also quoted officials from other countries:
“French President Emmanuel Macron said he “strongly condemned the terrorist attack”, while the new UK Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said she was “horrified by the terrorist attack”.
US ambassador Mike Huckabee also said he was horrified, adding: “We stand with Israel against this savagery.”
The Palestinian presidency “reiterated its firm position rejecting and condemning any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians, and denouncing all forms of violence and terrorism regardless of their source”, the official Wafa news agency reported.”
Knell and Gritten did not bother to remind readers that the Palestinian Authority under “the Palestinian presidency” still pays monthly salaries to convicted terrorists and to the families of terrorists.
A BBC News website live page, which opened as news of the attack broke, included an entry which also told audiences about statements put out by “world leaders and political figures”.
However, perusal of those statements in their original form shows that the editors of that live page – named at the top as Alex Smith and Jacqueline Howard – chose to erase specific terminology from their portrayal.
UAE:
As regular readers will know, the BBC’s new editorial guidelines concerning the “use of language” when reporting terrorism state that: [emphasis added]
“12.4.7 Reporting of extreme violence in pursuit of political or ideological objectives should be timely and responsible, bearing in mind the requirement for due accuracy and due impartiality. Care is required in the use of language that carries implicit value judgements. The perpetrators of extreme political or ideological violence are not viewed in the same way by all audiences.
12.4.8 The term ‘terrorist’ should only be used with attribution, ie when quoting or citing its use by others. Content makers should not adopt other people’s language as their own; their responsibility is to remain objective and report in a way that enables audiences to make their own assessments. The BBC should convey to the audience the full consequences of an act by describing the perpetrators as, for example, ‘bombers’, ‘gunmen’, ‘kidnappers’, ‘insurgents’ and ‘militants’. Their actions should only be described as ‘terrorist attacks’ with attribution.”
For years the BBC has embraced that ‘one man’s terrorist’ approach – albeit inconsistently when events occur closer to home. Now we see the application of a similarly inconsistent policy which leads to the erasure of the term terrorist even when it does appear in attributed statements and despite the BBC having claimed only two months ago that it “does not ban the use of the word ‘terrorist’, but the Guidelines require it to be used with attribution”.
The editorial decision to exclude the terms terror, terrorist and terrorism from all of those four quoted statements will be perceived by many as a clear example of “value judgements” having been made and implemented by BBC editors.
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