Deadline: UK Culture Secretary Says She Lobbied BBC To Change Policy On Calling Hamas “Terrorists” During Private Board Meeting

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The UK Culture Secretary has said she lobbied the BBC during a private board meeting to refer to Hamas as “terrorists” in its news coverage.

Lucy Frazer, who has previously said publicly that the corporation should use the term when referring to the group, was put under pressure this morning at a Culture, Media & Sport Committee hearing by committee member John Nicolson over the meeting with BBC head honchos including the Director General that took place late last year.

Nicolson quoted people who attended the meeting and told him they had been “baffled” by Frazer’s insistence to eschew discussing issues like the licence fee settlement and instead continue to “repeat points about Gaza.” “I am told you kept coming back to it,” said Nicolson.

Frazer stressed that a range of points were discussed at the meeting including the license fee settlement but recalled urging the BBC to change its tack on Hamas.

“We discussed the position of the BBC not referring to Hamas as ‘terrorists’,” she said. “I put points to the BBC in a private meeting about something I had said publicly about the reasons why I thought their guidance allowed them to refer to Hamas as ‘terrorists’, and I put forward a number of points as to why. I had previously asked officials whether it was appropriate to do that and I told the BBC I might raise it at the meeting.”

Under pressure from multiple senior figures in government, including Foreign Secretary David Cameron as recently as last week, the BBC has repeatedly stuck to the line of avoiding labeling Hamas “terrorists” and only using the term when it is being quoted. World Affairs Editor John Simpson has previously said it is a “loaded word” and is “simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn.” New BBC Chair Samir Shah has, however, recently said that he would “review” the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas War, especially whether the BBC should be referring to Hamas as “terrorists.”

BBC News execs have previously admitted that the war, which has so far claimed the lives of an estimated 40,000 people and has this week seen a warrant issued for the arrest of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, has been difficult to cover due to its “asymmetric nature.”

BBC impartiality was repeatedly raised at this morning’s committee hearing, coming a year after Frazer claimed the BBC was biased but failed to provide a single example of failings on impartiality.

Frazer defended herself today by saying she “didn’t want to pick out small examples of impartiality because that is not the issue.”

Instead, she branded the issue “impartiality as a whole within its organization,” which is currently being addressed via a set of independent impartiality reviews that have focused on the likes of migration, the economy and taxation.

Frazer cited examples from some of these reviews, including from the recent migration report that found the corporation “doesn’t have bias but has risks to impartiality pointing in multiple directions due to a narrow political lens,” she said. The economic review, meanwhile, said some BBC journalists “lack understanding of basic economics, which leads to high risks of impartiality,” Frazer added.

“These thematic reviews show the fact that [the BBC] isn’t impartial and has more work to do,” she said. “It accepts that.”

Frazer said progress is being made after the BBC’s recent mid-term review, which was overseen by the government, introduced new “checks and balances” around impartiality. Progress on impartiality has been made in recent months and some findings in relation to impartiality have been upheld, showing that “the system is working,” Frazer added.

“What I want to do and what I think I have done is make sure that the frameworks are in place to ensure that the BBC itself takes its responsibility seriously,” she added. “I’ve strengthened the internal mechanisms within the BBC so those people responsible for [impartiality] can get the resource within the BBC to look at these issues, reflect on them and internally hold the BBC to account when it doesn’t meet the bar that it has itself set.”

She would not budge, however, on questions over right-leaning news network GB News‘ commitment to impartiality. Ofcom this week began the process to sanction the network after it once again breached the regulator’s impartiality code, this time over a People’s Forum in which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was questioned by a live studio audience.

“I think that Ofcom is doing its job in terms of making sure that the broadcasting code is complied with,” Frazer said.

During a wide-ranging session, Frazer also addressed the growing chorus for the government to legislate on AI and protect creatives from the growing tech’s danger, which irked the TV trade body and actors union at the recent Creative Cities Convention.

Frazer said she understands the need for a “dynamic, agile” approach to AI and said cross-border work is required, having started conversations with the UK’s Science, Innovation and Technology department.

“We need to work out the asks of the industry in particular in terms of how we ensure transparency at every stage,” she added. “We need to work internationally. I know that the government regards AI as really important but we mustn’t lose site of both the importance of R&D as well as the primary force of the creative industries. The Prime Minister agrees.”

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