Grant Shapps slams BBC’s John Simpson over ‘shameful’ Nazi comment
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has sharply criticised one of the BBC’s most senior journalists for defending the broadcaster’s refusal to describe Hamas as “terrorists.”
John Simpson, a veteran war correspondent, wrote a blog setting out why the BBC was right to resist pressure to call Hamas terrorists, arguing that the corporation’s official policy even in World War II was not to describe the Nazis as “evil.”
“John Simpson, who’s a journalist who I hugely have always admired, must know as well as anyone else does that when you start to cite the Nazis in any argument you’ve basically lost it,” Shapps told POLITICO in an interview.
Shapps, who is Jewish, was among the first politicians to attack the BBC over its editorial guidelines, which prevent journalists calling Hamas “terrorists.” He said media regulator Ofcom had made clear the broadcaster was not barred from using the term.
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“I think it’s sad, and once you start invoking the Nazis, rather shameful, too,” Shapps said. “Parliament has defined them [Hamas] as a terrorist organization, Ofcom have confirmed that the BBC is wrong to claim that Ofcom won’t let them call them terrorists. I think it’s time for the BBC to move on.”
In his blog, Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor, wrote that remaining “calm and collected” was even true in World War II: “BBC broadcasters were expressly told not to call the Nazis evil or wicked, even though we could and did call them ‘the enemy.’”
According to The Times, Simpson’s blog sparked concern internally among some Jewish BBC staff. On Tuesday, the BBC’s board issued a statement welcoming scrutiny of its coverage of the Middle East crisis and backed its editorial guidelines.
According to reports, hundreds of people protested outside the BBC’s headquarters this week over the corporation’s decision not to use the term “terrorists.” The same building was also targeted by a pro-Palestinian protest group which accused the broadcaster of “manufacturing consent for Israel’s war crimes.”
Shapps is in Washington, D.C. meeting his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin and American lawmakers. His mission is to shore up support for Kyiv and help “coordinate” the efforts of British and American military machines to deal with both the Israel-Palestinian conflict and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.