A Jewish Conservative MP has blasted the BBC after the broadcaster described the shooting in Brussels as a “terror attack”.
The BBC’s terror attack description comes after the corporation has spent over a week claiming it is unable to describe Hamas as terrorists because of broadcasting rules – a claim that is widely disputed.
Yesterday evening the BBC published an article with the headline: “Brussels shooting: Suspects at large after two Swedes killed in terror attack.”
The use of the “t-word” was quickly picked up on, and shortly after criticism began the corporation changed its headline to “Brussels shooting: Two Swedes killed and suspect still at large”.
The amended headline failed to prevent allegations that the BBC had been caught out and that its refusal to describe Hamas’s attack in Israel as “terrorism” is a deliberate choice.
Tory MP Andrew Percy, who converted to Judaism in 2017, has this morning told the Express the headline “blows out the water John Simpson’s feeble and pathetic excuse for the BBC’s repeated refusal to not label the murderers of 1400 innocent people what they are; terrorists”.
He said: “The BBC has repeatedly shown it’s blind spot when it comes to the Israel and the murder of innocent Jews.”
John Simpson has defended the BBC’s refusal to brand Hamas’s actions as terrorism, claiming the word is “loaded” and it is “not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn”.
Fellow Tory MP Mark Jenkinson said: “The BBC is increasingly at odds with the licence fee paying public, and with its charter.
“This looks increasingly like institutional anti-Israel bias. They should publish the Balen report so we can see if they’ve acted on its findings.”
Yesterday the BBC came under renewed pressure to publish the “Balen report” – a 2004 internal inquiry examining the corporation’s coverage of Israel-Palestine and whether it was biased.
The BBC has spent years and around £350,000 of taxpayer cash in legal fees refusing to publish the report’s findings./
The BBC’s use of the word terror in relation to the Brussels attack was condemned on social media, with former MEP Lance Forman saying the corporation has “f***ing cheek’ to brand it such, when according to the broadcaster the murder of “babies and shooting of 260 innocent people at a music festival is not”.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said Jews “will note the BBC is calling it a ‘terror’ attack, using the very word that they refused to use about the worst single antisemitic atrocity since the end of the Holocaust #ShameOnTheBBC”.
They then called out the headline edit, saying the BBC had “changed its mind”.
They said: “The senseless murder in Brussels is no longer called a ‘terror’ attack. How low will the BBC stoop to avoid calling terror by its name?”
The BBC has been contacted for comment.
