David Cameron urges BBC to describe Hamas as terrorist organisation
Foreign secretary’s call comes after group releases video of British-Israeli hostage it says died after being wounded in Israeli airstrike
David Cameron has urged the BBC to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation, reviving an accusation that the corporation shies away from a valid description of the Islamist group that is holding Israeli hostages.
The UK foreign secretary told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the organisation should reconsider its guidelines in light of a video released by Hamas showing the British-Israeli hostage Nadav Popplewell, who the group said had died in Gaza.
Hamas released a statement on Saturday saying the 51-year-old had died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike a month ago. The video showed him with a black eye.
Hamas is a terrorist organization
Wikipedia first lines summarizes the 7th of October quite well:
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims.
Hamas still haven't released the civilian hostages. Hamas hides among civilians. The list goes on and on.
The only sad part is that the Palestinian people once voted for a terrorist organisation to represent them.
People can call Hamas for "Freedom Fighters" all they want but it doesn't erase the fact:
Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
And there's the problem. Why should Hamas be called a terrorist and not the Israel government?
This is why news organisations avoid the word. It clearly picks a side.
Why Hamas should be called a terrorist organisation?
Because they have been committing acts of terrorism.
Whether other organisations has committed or has not commited terrorist acts is irrelevant in this context and does in no way cancel out the horrible things Hamas has been doing.
Yeah but in that case:
US government and Canadian are terrorists (look at their list of war crimes against civilians, genocide of native Americans, kidnapping and "re-educating" native children for ethnic cleansing). The US independence war literally got kicked off by torturing civilian tax collectors by ripping their skin off after dragging them through the streets
Israel is a terrorist state (genocide against a specific ethnic group definitely fits this definition even if they just did it for expansionism, that is a political goal and there are 36000 that Israel has killed directly on the low end, including over 224 civilian humanitarian aid workers and 179 civilian unwra workers)
Hamas is a terrorist organization
Dole is a terrorist organization (banana republics, Hawaii)
Many police organizations nowadays are terrorists (constant violence against innocent civilians), especially in the US
Belgium is a terrorist state (Congo anyone?)
France is a terrorist state (they have a special police battalion hand picked for violence against civilians lol)
Russian army is a terrorist org (talk about violence against civilians, they have wiped out so many villages and just killed and dumped the population)
Hell, Britain is a terrorist org (Kenya atrocities like the chuka massacre, the Irish???, Iraq & Afganistan?? BBC themselves reported how the British government was covering up their forces killing and torture of civilians and children in the middle east)
The point is that a news org can't (or shouldn't) just cherry pick who they want to label terrorists because that, no matter which way you slice it, will be political bias. Their own government has committed many, MANY acts of terror very recently.
No. Not "in that case".
Fact: Hamas commits and have committed acts of terrorism and therefore Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It doesn't matter what other countries have committed terrorist acts now or 100 years ago. There is no connection or dependencies.
Hamas is a terrorist organisation because of them committing acts of terrorism. End of story.
When BBC is asked to call Belgium a terrorist start you're free to discuss that there. In that thread I will happily claim that Hamas is innocent to whatever Leo did in Africa.
You spelled Israel wrong.
Both can be true. But that doesn't mean the BBC should give up its neutral stance.
Neutral would be calling Likud a terrorist organization as well.
If Great Britain labels Hamas a terrorist organization, why shouldn't the BBC then to the same?
Because the BBC is not the PR arm of the British government. It is supposed to be an independent and impartial entity.
brit living in America. It is astonishing the difference between news feeds
the BBC waivers and has its faults and biases, but even biases I loosely agree with are so partisan in the US it makes me feel a bit unwell.
It's the official stance of the country from their own government, by extension the british people. Are you saying that's not what the BBC represents?
No. The BBC does not represent the official stance of the country and never has. It is an independent journalistic body.
Of course they do. The aren't allowed to print anything they want. Public service is governed by state. Well at least in Sweden but the principle is the same.
They are, in fact, allowed to print anything they want. They are not beholden to the government. That's a simple fact.
No dude, they are regulated by the Ofcon, a government approved state department and their prints are regulated by Ofcon statures:
https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/regulation
And if you know your history, you also know that the BBC was heavily censored during the war. And that's about it.
I'm not sure how you think that changes anything that I said and makes them beholden to the government, but okay.
I'd think the fact that they aren't doing what David Cameron wants them to do proves you wrong, but you seem to think your "research" trumps reality, so...
Well, the BBC is clearly regulated by the government, while you claim that is not the case due to 'simple facts'...
The simple fact being that David Cameron told them to call Hamas terrorists and they said no. Read the article. If they are beholden to the government, how is that possible?
No. They’re saying the BBC is not the government’s mouthpiece. It is an impartial public broadcaster. The same BBC that has reported on both IRA bombings and Sinn Féin elections. If you understand that last sentence you may realise why the BBC speaks as it does.
BBC is regulated by the government in the form of Ofcom according to:
https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/regulation
Ofcom is a “government approved regulator” as opposed to the “government regulating approval.“ There is a difference. It’s a .org not .gov domain.
They regulate the BBC that's all you need to focus on.
Ofcom regulates EVERY television broadcaster, every radio broadcaster, all the phone providers, all the broadband providers, the postal providers and the wireless providers in the UK. That’s a lot more companies than just the BBC. That is what I’ll be focusing on; rather than your suggestion. Thanks all the same.
Yeah, so the BBC is government regulated....
Wow. Believe whatever you want - don’t let facts get in the way of your opinions. You are so colossally misunderstanding what the phrase “government approved regulator” means. Thanks for the laugh.
Isreal isn't labeled a terrorist organization by any institutional body that I know of.
Which is ironic considering at this point Israel has most likely killed more innocent civilians than Hamas ever did
So has the US, Russia, China etc. by that metric. The killing of civilians is not what determines a terrorist organization.
Oh well that's convenient
Well you brought it up, but it contradicts your point.
Did I?
Uh, yes, following the comment above.
The zionist paramilitaries that were consolidated (read: Likud) into the first iteration of the IDF were proud, avowed terrorists because they knew they couldn't win a territorial conflict using conventional methods while outnumbered on hostile turf. Labeled, ha.