The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has instructed its staff to avoid referring to the September 11 attacks as "terrorist attacks" in news coverage, a directive that has drawn criticism ahead of the 25th anniversary of the event. An internal memo, reportedly signed by Basem Boshra, senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News, directs employees to state factual events rather than applying labels like "terrorist" or "terrorism."
The memo specifies that coverage should note, "The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed." This guidance mirrors a longstanding CBC policy that also drew scrutiny during coverage of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel.
CBC defended the directive as a means to maintain journalistic impartiality. Kerry Kelly, a public affairs spokesperson for CBC, stated, "Our focus is to report the facts of such atrocities with accuracy, clarity and detail; to convey the scale and scope of violent acts wherever they occur; to quote the people affected, and to convey the views of officials and experts on these events. We bear witness."
Kelly added that the broadcaster avoids designating specific groups as terrorists or specific acts as terrorism because "these words are so loaded with meaning, politics and emotion that they can end up being impediments to our journalism." Like Reuters, CBC reportedly uses such terms only when quoting others.
The internal memo sparked backlash from some political figures. Conservative Member of Parliament Rachel Thomas criticized the policy on X, formerly Twitter, calling it "shameful" and arguing that it "dishonours the victims, their families, the survivors, and the first responders who witnessed the horrors of that day." Thomas stated that attempting to "sanitize or rewrite that history is deeply offensive and does a disservice to everyone who was affected by the attacks."
The policy's application to the 9/11 attacks, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, has reignited debate about journalistic terminology and its potential impact on public perception and historical remembrance. The CBC's stance emphasizes a commitment to factual reporting, while critics argue it downplays the nature of the events.