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.

      • Murvel@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        If Great Britain labels Hamas a terrorist organization, why shouldn’t the BBC then to the same?

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          6 months ago

          Because the BBC is not the PR arm of the British government. It is supposed to be an independent and impartial entity.

          • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            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.

          • Murvel@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            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?

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              6 months ago

              No. The BBC does not represent the official stance of the country and never has. It is an independent journalistic body.

              • Murvel@lemm.ee
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                6 months ago

                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.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                  6 months ago

                  They are, in fact, allowed to print anything they want. They are not beholden to the government. That’s a simple fact.

            • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              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.

    • Murvel@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Isreal isn’t labeled a terrorist organization by any institutional body that I know of.

      • atoro@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        Which is ironic considering at this point Israel has most likely killed more innocent civilians than Hamas ever did

      • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        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.