BBC defends its coverage: 'No one consuming BBC News can be left unaware of the horrific nature of Hamas’ acts'
David Cameron calls on BBC on the air to call Hamas a terrorist group: 'What more do they need to do?'
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on the BBC to finally label Hamas a terrorist organization during an interview on the channel.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on the BBC to its face to label Hamas a terrorist group during an interview Sunday, wondering what the organization had to do to be branded that way by the British public broadcaster.
"When you see what Hamas are prepared to do, you just realize the terrible, dreadful, inhuman people, frankly, that we are dealing with," Cameron told BBC anchor Laura Kuenssberg.
"Maybe it's a moment, actually, for the BBC to ask itself again, should we describe these people as terrorists?" he said, speaking out live on the government-tied outlet.
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UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on the BBC to label Hamas a terrorist group during an interview on the network Sunday. BBC defended its coverage in a statement to Fox News Digital. (Getty Images)
Cameron listed out Hamas' numerous crimes in his conversation with Kuenssberg, alluding in particular to its horrific actions in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel last year.
"If you kidnap grandmothers, kidnap babies, you rape people, you shoot children in front of their parents, what more do they need to do for the BBC to say, ‘Look, these are terrorists?’" Cameron asked. "They are terrorists."
Anti-Israel protests have broken out across the UK as the country remains divided over the Israel-Hamas war.
BBC defended the network's coverage to Fox News Digital.
"No one consuming BBC News can be left unaware of the horrific nature of Hamas’ acts. We’ve made our long-standing position on this matter very clear - we use the word terrorist when it is attributed to others, such as the UK Government," BBC said in a statement.
BBC referred to Hamas as a "Palestinian group" in an explainer about the terrorist organization last month.
"Maybe it's a moment, actually, for the BBC to ask itself again, should we describe these people as terrorists?" Cameron said in a challenge to BBC. (BBC)
"Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have been at war since early October," BBC wrote on April 5. "It began when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza - the deadliest in Israel's history."
It's not the first criticism BBC has gotten for how it's covered the Israel-Hamas war. The media organization was forced to apologize in January after airing an unverified December radio report that accused Israel Defense Forces troops of executing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"In overnight output, we ran a story about Hamas accusing the Israeli army of carrying out summary executions in the Gaza Strip. This was a Hamas statement, but although the accusations were attributed and our story contained a response from the Israeli military saying they were unaware of the incident and that Hamas was a terrorist organisation that did not value truth, we had not made sufficient effort to seek corroborating evidence to justify reporting the Hamas claim. We apologise for this mistake," the BBC said on its corrections page.
Fox News' Brian Flood and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
Jeffrey Clark is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. He has previously served as a speechwriter for a cabinet secretary and as a Fulbright teacher in South Korea. Jeffrey graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a degree in English and History.
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