Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Canadian public broadcaster CBC instructed its journalists not to describe 9/11 as a “terror attack,” according to an internal memo first revealed by the Toronto Sun and subsequently reported by the New York Post. CBC confirmed that the directive reflects a longstanding journalistic policy under which its reporters do not independently use the terms “terror” or “terrorist,” arguing that the politically and emotionally charged terminology could compromise the neutrality of its coverage.
The internal guidance ahead of the 25th anniversary has sparked controversy in Canada. According to the memo distributed to CBC employees, journalists were explicitly instructed to avoid describing the attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were murdered, as “terror attacks.” “Do not refer to the September 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” the memo stated. “The hijackings led to passenger planes crashing in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center was destroyed.”
According to the report, the memo was signed with the initials “BB.” The Toronto Sun, which first published it, identified the signatory as Bassem Boshra, CBC News’s senior director of journalistic standards and public trust. CBC did not distance itself from the directive. Instead, the broadcaster said it stems from a policy in place for decades under which its journalists do not independently label an event “terrorism” or an organization a “terrorist organization.”
CBC argues that using such terminology could interfere with maintaining journalistic neutrality. CBC public affairs spokeswoman Kerry Kelly explained that the broadcaster instead focuses on reporting the facts of atrocities “with clarity and detail,” conveying the scale and severity of violence, speaking to those affected and reporting the assessments of officials and experts. She said CBC News does not independently designate particular groups as terrorists or particular acts as terrorism, regardless of the region or circumstances, because the terminology is so politically and emotionally charged that it could ultimately become an obstacle to its journalism.
The policy has drawn fierce political criticism. Canadian Conservative MP Rachael Thomas argued that refusing to call 9/11 terrorism diminishes the severity of the attacks and dishonors those murdered. “Refusing to call it an act of terrorism dishonors the victims, their families, the survivors and the first responders who witnessed the horrors of that day,” Thomas wrote. She added that attempts to sanitize or rewrite the history are deeply offensive and do a disservice to everyone affected by the attacks. The report also noted that even Osama bin Laden, who authorized and financed the attacks, himself used the word “terror.” In a video released in December 2001, he reportedly referred to terrorism against America as “blessed terrorism.”
This is not the first time CBC’s terminology policy has generated controversy. Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel, the broadcaster faced similar criticism after journalists were instructed not to refer to Hamas terrorists as “terrorists.” Conservative lawmakers demanded that CBC explain the policy at the time. CBC maintained that the instruction was not specific to Hamas or Israel, but rather reflected a longstanding editorial standard applied to its reporting worldwide.