Governments around the world are stepping up pressure on the media to use terms other than Islamic State to describe the extremist group.

British prime minister David Cameron and the Egyptian government have both warned journalists about the consequences of labelling the group Islamic State recently.

The extremist group went through several name changes before settling on Islamic State when leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced a caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria in June 2014.

Last week Mr Cameron told a BBC radio program that he believed the BBC should not label the group Islamic State because it was offensive to Muslims.

"I wish the BBC would stop calling it Islamic State because it is not an Islamic state. What it is is an appalling barbarous regime that is a perversion of the religion of Islam and many Muslims listening to this program will recoil every time they hear the words Islamic State," he said.

Media groups use various names for the group: Islamic State (IS), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Some use 'so-called' before Islamic State to make clear that was the name the group decided to call themselves.

The BBC rejected a request by Mr Cameron and 120 British lawmakers, including London mayor Boris Johnson, that urged the BBC and other broadcasters to stop using Islamic State by arguing it gives legitimacy the group that is neither Islamic nor a state.

Mr Cameron earlier aired on the radio program another term – "death cult" – that Prime Minister Tony Abbott also favours.

"'So-called' or 'ISIL' is better, but it is an existential threat because that is what's happening here and that is a perversion of a great religion and the creation of this poisonous death cult," Mr Cameron said.

Some western leaders now prefer to call the group Daesh, an Arabic acronym that translates as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The #NotInMyName campaign took off on social media last year, with young Muslims saying the Islamic State militant group does not represent Islam. ( Instagram: Rossana Kausar )

Daesh also sounds similar to an Arabic word meaning "one who sows discord".

Kuranda Seyit, the director of the Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations, says it is a conundrum for the Muslim community, media and governments worldwide.

"I'm not a great fan of this term, but using the term Daesh might I suppose soften the impact that it's having on innocent Muslims around the world who are being connected to this terrorist organisation," Ms Seyit said.

University of Sydney politics and media lecturer Dr Peter Chen said governments were avoiding the use of Islamic State to reduce the group's credibility.

"Clearly in this context they're attempting to deny that military and political organisation the sort of legitimacy that we award to other states and cast the conflict not as a military conflict between equals but cast it more as a sort of anti-terrorism type of conflict," he said.

"And that's because the way in which you view a particular conflict shapes the sort of policy tools that become legitimate, and also it changes the way in which you can conduct the conflict."

Egypt cracks down on journalists straying from government line

Egypt is pushing through a new anti-terrorism bill that would imprison journalists for at least two years for reporting information on attacks that stray from the government line.

Cairo has also just issued a new English-language guide for foreign media, telling them to refrain from describing armed groups as "Islamist," "jihadist" and "fundamentalist".

The memo argues: "These terminologies tarnish the image of Islam as it falsely attaches the horrendous acts of these extremist groups to the Islamic faith."

Instead the memo urges terms like 'terrorists', 'slayers', 'destroyers' and 'savages'.

Human rights groups say it is just another concerning part of Egypt's crackdown on dissent, which has already targeted journalists such as Australian Peter Greste.

Dr Chen said the media needed to preserve impartiality when governments demand the use of certain language.

"Clearly to do that would be to lose any sort of criticality on the way in which politicians are attempting to advance their objectives through their use of language, but also to some extent it produces inaccuracies," he said.

Mr Seyit suggests a new term might be needed.

"At the risk of sounding flippant, maybe we should call them 'CRISIS' which is standing for Crazy Radicalised Individuals Selling Islam Short because in reality these people have created a crisis worldwide and I think that we are all scratching our heads in how to deal with this problem," he said.