December 2023
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about the BBC's reporting of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The BBC has a duty to provide accurate, impartial news and information. Its accuracy and impartiality is critical to viewer trust, and is particularly important when it comes to coverage of highly sensitive events. The events in Israel since 7 October are terrorist acts committed by a terrorist organisation, proscribed in the United Kingdom since 2021 and designated as such by many other governments and international organisations.
The BBC is editorially and operationally independent; decisions around its editorial policies and guidelines are therefore a matter for the BBC. However, calling these acts what they are, and accurately labelling the perpetrators, helps audiences to understand what has happened, is happening and its context. For this reason, the Government has communicated with the BBC disappointment over the organisation's refusal to describe Hamas as terrorists, or its atrocities as terrorism. This point has been made to the BBC on multiple occasions since the terrorist attacks on 7 October.
As the independent regulator of the BBC, Ofcom is responsible for ensuring BBC coverage is duly impartial and accurate under the Broadcasting Code and BBC Charter. Ofcom has been clear that responsibility lies with the BBC to decide the vocabulary it uses to describe unfolding events. The Broadcasting Code does not prevent broadcasters referring to terrorist organisations, nor does it prevent them referring to Hamas as terrorists.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Best wishes,
Angela Richardson MP
Member of Parliament for Guildford, Cranleigh and our villages