You may be aware that the BBC has published a response to complaints from people unhappy that we have not used the word “terrorist” when referring to Hamas

We thought readers would also find John Simpson’s comments of interest, as a BBC World Affairs Editor with decades of experience of covering international conflicts in accordance with the Editorial Guidelines which underpin all BBC reporting.

As John pointed out in his news website article, although we don’t label people as terrorists ourselves, across BBC News we still report the comments of others who do, while also making clear that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation.

Some people felt that in following this long-standing editorial convention – given the scale of the current atrocities – we were siding with Hamas against Israel. But in outlining his experiences John made the point that it is not our job to take sides.