Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has issued a firm warning to the BBC and other outlets over their coverage of the hospital blast in Gaza, urging them not to “rush to judgement before we have all the facts.”
Sunak continued, “in the same way we don’t treat what comes out of the Kremlin as the gospel truth, we should not do the same with Hamas.”
The warning comes after the BBC faced criticism for refraining from labelling Hamas as terrorists in recent days.
The Prime Minister stressed on the broadcaster’s choice of wording, stating, “This is not a time for equivocation, we should call it out for what it is.”
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer also confronted BBC chief Tim Davie, seeking clarification on the rationale behind the journalists’ choice of terminology.
The BBC persists in referring to the attackers as ‘the Hamas militant group’, ‘Hamas militants’ and ‘Palestinian militants’ in its online news segments.
Former Labour MP Luciana Berger emphasised the media’s duty, stating, “There’s a responsibility on all the media. These people are terrorists. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Language matters. When you treat countries differently you exacerbate the problem.”
