Political correctness, BBC style

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, AUG 5. When is an ``assassination'' not an assassination? When the BBC is reporting the killings of Palestinian guerillas by Israeli soldiers. The BBC has been criticised for advising its correspondents in West Asia not to describe Israeli killings of Palestinians as ``assassination'', and instead stick to the Israeli euphemism ``targeted attacks''. ``Assassination'' is to be used while reporting or referring to the killing of leading political or religious figures or high-ranking government officials. Palestinian killings of Israelis, however, would continue to be described as ``assassination'' or ``murder''.

The Independent, which broke the BBC's new code, said it was seen as a ``surrender to Israeli diplomatic pressure'' but the BBC denied it. In the past, Israel has accused the BBC of a pro- Palestinian bias and observers termed its decision not to call a spade a spade anymore as a concession to Israeli sensitivities.

According to The Independent's West Asia correspondent, Robert Fisk, BBC reporters were ``amazed'' when they received a memorandum suggesting that there were ``lots of other words for death'' and the word assassination should be used only for high- profile political murders. He called it ``covert censorship'' pointing out that so far only the CNN ``held the prize for soft reporting on Israel.''

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Section  : International
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