Canadian Broadcast Corporation Tells Staff Not to Refer to 9/11 as a Terrorist Attack

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation circulated a memo ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 directing staff not to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as acts of terrorism.

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The memo, first reported by the Toronto Sun, was written by Bashem Boshra, the senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News.

“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” Boshra wrote.

Boshra’s instruction is characterized as part of the network’s “longstanding language guidance.” When describing the attack, reporters and editors should say that the “hijackings led to passenger jet crashes,” according to the memo, a copy of which was published by the National Post.

“The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed,” the memo reads.

The CBC is Canada’s national broadcaster for radio and television and is funded by taxpayers.

Asked about the prohibition on use of the word “terrorism” to describe what was clearly a terrorist act, a spokesperson for the CBC explained that the concise and accurate term would only serve to confuse the audience.

“It is the practice of the CBC to exercise extreme caution before using the words terrorist and terrorism. The memo was a reminder of the longstanding practice that favours the use of these terms with attribution in our reporting, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organizations,” Kerry Kelly, the director of public affairs at CBC, told National Review in a statement.

“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. But CBC News does not itself designate specific groups as terrorists, or specific acts as terrorism, regardless of the region or the events, because these words are so loaded with meaning, politics and emotion that they can end up being impediments to our journalism.”

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Kelly directed NR to a previous editor’s blog written by Brodie Fenlon, general manager and editor in chief of CBC, which details how the CBC “uses the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism.’”

The blog claims usage of the words can “become impediments to reporting. For this reason, generally avoid labelling any specific bombing or other assault as a “terrorist act” unless this term is attributed (in a TV or radio clip, or in a direct quote on the web).”

Fenlon then provides examples of other attacks, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that the CBC does not use the words “terrorist” or “terrorism” to define. Other examples listed include: the January 2011 deadly suicide bombing at a Moscow airport, the July 20o5 London bombings, and the March 2004 Madrid train bombings.

The editor’s blog in question was written in October 2023, following the brutal October 7 terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel, when the CBC faced similar criticism after an internal memo leaked, directing reporters and editors to not call the event terrorism in their own voice, only attributing those words to other outlets or people. The Canadian government, however, had designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 2002.

The 9/11 attacks were carried out by the terrorist group al-Qaeda and resulted in the death of 2,977 Americans. The attacks were carried out by nineteen hijackers who stole four passenger planes, two of which were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City. A third plane was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the final plane crashed in Pennsylvania, after the passengers fought back to thwart the attack. It was the deadliest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, 60 years prior.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of being the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks, is set to face trial alongside his co-conspirators in June 2028, a military judge decided on Wednesday; he has been held in Guantanamo Bay since 2006. Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi will also face trial.

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