{"id":120130,"date":"2023-10-13T15:29:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T15:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/?p=120130"},"modified":"2023-10-13T15:29:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T15:29:30","slug":"call-a-spade-a-spade-grant-shapps-slams-bbc-to-its-face-over-hamas-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/politics\/call-a-spade-a-spade-grant-shapps-slams-bbc-to-its-face-over-hamas-language\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Call a spade a spade!’ -Grant Shapps slams BBC to its face over Hamas language"},"content":{"rendered":"
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps tackled the BBC head-on this morning over the ongoing row about them refusing to label Hamas fighters as \u2018terrorists\u2019.<\/p>\n
Mr Shapps\u2019s tense confrontation is just the latest example of mass public pressure, following seven former Culture secretaries signing a joint letter to the corporation last night demanding a change of their reporting policy.<\/p>\n
The Defence Secretary said the BBC \u201caren\u2019t particularly interested\u201d in covering Hamas as terrorists.<\/p>\n
He told Radio 4: \u201cIt is good that Israel provided information in advance… Hamas certainly didn’t do that before they went and slaughtered people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I would have thought a good start is to warn people in advance that the area that they are in is likely to be part of an attack where the Israelis are trying to get hold of the Hamas terrorists, who you don’t seem to be particularly interested in.”<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Defence Secretary says Hamas hostages ‘highly likely’ to include Brits<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n He added: \u201cThe BBC seems to refuse to call them terrorists even though the British Parliament has legislated that they are terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n BBC presenter Mishal Husain could barely disguise her fury at being called out, blankly demanding to know how Mr Shapps could make the claim if he\u2019d seen any of the BBC\u2019s coverage of the \u201catrocities, the dead, the injured the survivors\u201d.<\/p>\n She demanded to know whether Mr Shapps is \u201caware of the OFCOM code and the rules for all broadcasters?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll know that the OFCOM broadcasting code requires that news in whatever form is reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality. Broadcasters are not the same as newspapers and indeed all UK broadcasters stick to the same language around terrorism and these groups that the BBC is, we are not unique in this.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Shapps said it would be \u201chelpful if the national broadcaster stuck by what Parliament has legislated\u201d, given Hamas is on the official list of proscribed terrorist organisations.<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> <\/p>\n We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n Ms Husain demanded to know whether the Government is \u201csingling out the BBC and singling out Hamas, or whether you are calling for a change in the OFCOM broadcasting code?\u201d<\/p>\n He replied: \u201cI am simply pointing out that I\u2019ve read articles on the BBC explaining why they don\u2019t think they need to refer to an organisation that carried out extraordinary animal-like acts at the weekend as terrorists, which is what they are\u201d.<\/p>\n The Today presenter tried arguing that the Government only added Hamas to the proscribed list of terrorist organisations two years ago, despite the group carrying out attacks for many years prior.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the UK Government\u2019s language should be mirrored by all UK broadcasters?\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Shapps pointed out that when Parliament makes a law that is then a law. We\u2019re disappearing down a bit of a rabbit hole here, I simply make the point that many other broadcasters have been asking me about the concerns within the British Jewish community that it would be reassuring, I would have thought, if the BBC called a spade a spade.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen terrorists act in this way there needs to be an understanding that there isn\u2019t an equivalence between going after those terrorists and trying to protect the civilian population by providing warnings – which has been the subject of the majority of our interview – and the way that terrorist organisation themselves act.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s an over tendency to try and make an equivalence between the two and say \u2018on the one hand this but on the other hand it\u2019s that\u2019. The two are not equivalent in any shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n
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