Charlie Hebdo killers should NOT be called 'terrorists', claims BBC executive

• Head of BBC Arabic Tarik Kafala says term 'terrorist' is too 'loaded' to use
• Corporation's own guidance also says the word is considered 'a barrier'
• Said and Cherif Kouachi and accomplice Amedy Coulibaly murdered 17
• The brothers killed 12 people in a massacre at offices of Charlie Hebdo
• Coulibaly murdered a policewoman and then four others in Kosher deli
• But Mr Kafala insists at the BBC: 'We avoid the word terrorists'
• He added: 'Two men killed 12 people in an attack on the office of a satirical magazine. That's enough'

Language: Tarik Kafala, who runs BBC Arabic, said the term 'terrorist' was too 'loaded' and 'value-laden' to describe Said and Cherif Kouachi and their accomplice Amedy Coulibaly

The Parisian extremists who murdered 17 people in a series of attacks including the Charlie Hebdo massacre should not be called 'terrorists', a senior BBC executive has said.

Tarik Kafala, who runs BBC Arabic, said the term 'terrorist' was too 'loaded' and 'value-laden' to describe Said and Cherif Kouachi and their accomplice Amedy Coulibaly.

The Kouachi brothers shot dead 12 at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris and Coulibaly killed four at a Kosher deli after shooting dead a policewoman. 

All three were eventually shot dead by French special forces after the Islamists all burst out of their hideouts two weeks ago.

Mr Kafalam runs the BBC's largest non-English language TV, radio and online news services, which have a weekly audience of 36million people.

He told The Independent: 'We try to avoid describing anyone as a terrorist or an act as being terrorist. What we try to do is to say that 'two men killed 12 people in an attack on the office of a satirical magazine'. That's enough.

'Terrorism is such a loaded word. 

The UN has been struggling for more than a decade to define the word and they can't. It is very difficult to. 

'We know what political violence is, we know what murder, bombings and shootings are and we describe them.

 That's much more revealing, we believe, than using a word like terrorist which people will see as value-laden.'

Talking about the Paris murders he said: 'We avoid the word terrorists'.

The BBC's language guidelines says that the word 'terrorist 'can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding'.

It says: '(The BBC) does not ban the use of the word.

'However, we do ask that careful thought is given to its use by a BBC voice.

 There are ways of conveying the full horror and human consequences of acts of terror without using the word ‘terrorist’ to describe the perpetrators.

'The value judgements frequently implicit in the use of the words ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist group’ can create inconsistency in their use or, to audiences, raise doubts about our impartiality.

'It may be better to talk about an apparent act of terror or terrorism than label individuals or a group'.

Instead reporters are encouraged to use the words 'bomber', 'attacker', 'gunman', 'kidnapper', 'insurgent', and 'militant'.

'Our responsibility is to remain objective and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own assessments about who is doing what to whom,' the guidance says.

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