Palestinian security prisoners can be referred to as ‘hostages’ in UK reporting, regulator rules

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) has been hit by a wave of criticism since the press regulator ruled that Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel can be referred to as “hostages,” The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

IPSO’s decision came after an article was published in the Scottish newspaper The National with a headline claiming that “hundreds of Palestinian hostages” were released by Israel – a reference to the latest ceasefire-hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

The organization claimed the description of the prisoners as hostages, many of whom were members of Hamas, was “subjective.”

BBC News, which is covered by a different regulator, issued an on-air correction for referring to the prisoners as “hostages.”

IPSO’s ruling followed a complaint by Adam Levick, the UK co-editor of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting.

Levick said that describing the prisoners as hostages “puts on equal moral footing” the hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 massacre and Palestinian terrorists. 

Many of the over 250 people initially abducted by Hamas were civilians, some children. 

‘Gross misrepresentation’

Levick said The National’s “gross misrepresentation” of the released prisoners was a breach of the IPSO editors’ code on accuracy.

IPSO responded by claiming the headline referred to the prisoners held without trial, not the 36 serving life sentences and, therefore, it was not “significantly inaccurate” to describe them as hostages.

Levick told The Telegraph: “I was truly shocked when I was told of the decision. I thought it was a slam dunk and such an easy call.

“I referred in my complaint to the fact that the BBC had been forced to correct its use of the term hostages when it was referring to Palestinian prisoners, and I thought Ipso would adjudicate fairly. It’s very dispiriting.”

JPost