(CNSNews.com) - Britain's national broadcaster re-edited some of its online coverage of last Thursday's London bombings to remove references to "terrorists" and related words, after earlier appearing to have set aside its policy of not using the terms.

In the hours following the attacks, observers noted that the BBC had referred to "terrorists" and "terror" in stories on its BBC News website, despite editorial guidelines telling staff to avoid the term.

But at some point, editors began reining in.

The evidence can be seen in a simple Google News search: Google reflects the original wording of a story headline and text excerpts, even if that story on the linked news website is later changed.

For instance, one July 8 BBC story is headlined on Google "Bus man may have seen terrorist" but on the BBC website the headline has been changed to read: "Passenger believes he saw bomber."

Another BBC story reads, on Google, "UK and European shares rebounded on Friday, erasing the previous day's losses caused by terrorist attacks in London."

But again, on the BBC site the sentence has been edited to read \ldblquote... erasing the previous day's losses caused by bomb attacks in London."

A July 7 story headlined "Blair vows terrorists won't win" was later changed to read "Blair says 'terror will not win' "

Similarly, a July 8 story that originally read \ldblquote... on the morning after the worst terrorist atrocity Britain has ever seen" now reads \ldblquote... on the morning after the worst peacetime bomb attacks Britain has seen."

The retroactive bid to remove the terms was not watertight, however. One July 8 story still reads: "Security has been tightened across Wales and transport was severely disrupted after four terrorist bombings in London."

BBC editorial guidelines warn staff against "the careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments" and say "the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding."

The BBC's reluctance to use the word, especially in its coverage of suicide bombings in Israel, had in the past drawn strong criticism.

According to a British media, advertising and PR website, Media Bulletin, "staff at the BBC were reminded in an email sent on Thursday morning that they should use the word 'bomber' instead [of terrorist]."

Tom Gross, a former Jerusalem correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph, wrote in the Jerusalem Post this week that "the hope of many of the British taxpayers forced to fund the BBC that it had finally come to its senses and would henceforth call terror by its proper name turned out to be short-lived."

"Presumably hoping that no one would notice, the BBC subtly and retroactively altered its initial texts about the bombs on both its British and international websites," he said.

See earlier story:
BBC Calls Terrorism Terrorism (Jul. 08, 2005)

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