Independent Press Standards Organisation in the UK dismisses complaint against Scottish newspaper that claimed hundreds of terrorists freed in hostage deal were “hostages.”
A British press regulatory body has defended the claim that terrorists imprisoned in Israel are “hostages,” defending attempts to create moral parity between Israeli civilians and children who were taken hostage during the October 7 massacre and convicted murderers and other violent offenders.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (ISPSO) responded to a complaint against the Scottish newspaper The National, which published an article in February under the inflammatory headline “Hundreds of Palestinian hostages released by Israel,” the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The complaint was filed by the UK co-editor of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA), Adam Levick, who called the use of the word “hostages” to refer to hundreds of terrorists a “gross misrepresentation” and a violation of the accuracy clause of the ISPSO Editors’ Code of Practice.
Levick stated that the headline “puts on equal moral footing” the innocent Israeli hostages and the prisoners who were released by Israel during the January hostage deal, “most of whom were members of a proscribed terrorist group and were convicted of violent offences.”
ISPSO dismissed the complaint, claiming that while 33 of the prisoners released by Israel in the exchange described in the article had been serving life sentences for serious crimes, 333 of the released prisoners had not been charged since their arrests post-October 7. “It was not significantly inaccurate to refer to 333 of the Palestinians released on 15 February as ‘hostages,’” ISPSO claimed.
It added that the term “hostage” is “somewhat subjective” in its meaning.
Levik criticized the decision, noting that Israel’s administrative detention policies are similar to the policies in the UK and US. “It’s impossible to imagine a British media outlet describing such detainees as ‘hostages’” if they were arrested by the UK or US, he said.
