CBC changes 9/11 'terrorism' wording policy

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has changed its policy on using the word “terrorism” to describe the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States ahead of their 25th anniversary.

Basem Boshra, CBC’s senior director of journalistic standards, said in a blog post that the public broadcaster had previously required the term to be attributed to a source. He said direct attribution is now not required for describing the historic events of 9/11 as terrorism.

The move followed criticism after media outlets published an excerpt from CBC’s internal language guide that instructed staff not to use the word “terrorism” to describe 9/11.

FBI Director Kash Patel called the guidance “an insult to the souls lost during our largest terrorist attack in US history.” Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s conservative opposition leader, called on CBC to apologise and retract the directive.

Boshra said CBC News had never said the September 11 attacks were not terrorism, and had reported on the reasons and motivations for the attacks with attribution. He said the policy had “become an impediment to clarity and public understanding.”

He said CBC would continue attributing causes and motivations to officials and experts when covering new acts of politically or ideologically motivated violence.