CBC Makes Exception to Terrorism Label Policy for 9/11 Attacks After Public Criticism

OTTAWA -- Canada’s public broadcaster said Friday it is making an exception to its policy of not labeling specific attacks as terrorism for the 9/11 attacks after coming under fire over a memo restating it.

Like other news outlets including The Associated Press, CBC/Radio-Canada's standards normally don't allow reporters to describe events as terrorist attacks unless they are quoting someone else's words.

But the director of the FBI, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Republican members of Congress and Canada's Conservative party all criticized the CBC following media reports about a memo reminding journalists of the policy sent to staff ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Basem Boshra, senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, said in a blog post late Friday afternoon that CBC would make an exception to the rule for the 9/11 attacks.

He said a “leaked excerpt” of its language policy had raised questions that the public broadcaster must now answer.

“We are doing so to remove what has unfortunately (and unintentionally) become an impediment to clarity and public understanding,” he said.

“At the same time, as new acts of politically or ideologically motivated violence occur in our world, we will continue to follow the journalistically sound practice of attributing causes and motivations to officials and experts.”

Canada's Culture Minister Marc Miller praised the move on social media, calling it a “welcome change to what was a piece of pedantic and foolish guidance that caused legitimate anger.”

Boshra’s post was published less than an hour after Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree issued a press release saying the Canadian government “has always recognized 9/11 as the deadliest terrorist attack in history, and we unequivocally condemn terrorism in all its forms.”

In the post, Boshra said CBC News “has never said what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, was not terrorism, as some commentators have stated in recent days. We have reported fully and accurately on the reasons and motivations for those attacks as determined by police, governments and an independent commission. We’ve just made sure to do it with attribution.”

The fracas began after Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella reported on a memo, in which he said CBC News staff were told “do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

That led to a wave of criticism in the United States.

“Any agency in Canada that doesn’t publicly reject this bastardization of history, and an insult to the souls lost during our largest terrorist attack in U.S. history will no longer have friend in this FBI,” FBI Director Kash Patel said an online post late Thursday.

A group of Republican representatives in Congress also posted earlier in the day: “What possible motive could there be for sanitizing the worst terrorist attack on American soil? Care to explain, @Canada?”

On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra weighed in, sharing Patel’s post and saying the FBI has been responsible or instrumental in disrupting terrorist and violent criminal organizations operating in Canada multiple times this year.

Hoekstra added: “Failure to recognize and confront radical and terrorist ideologies significantly endangers our efforts to establish and harmonize a shared national and economic security partnership.”

CBC spokesperson Kerry Kelly told the The Canadian Press that it was the public broadcaster’s practice to use “extreme caution” in using the words terrorism or terrorist.

She said the memo “was a reminder of the long-standing practice that favors the use of these terms with attribution in our reporting, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organizations.” Kelly did not provide a copy of the memo.

She pointed to a 2023 blog post in which CBC editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon wrote that the outlet often uses the word terrorist, but with attribution.

“Attribution of the word ‘terrorist’ has been our policy for decades — mirrored by other news organizations such as the BBC, AP, AFP and Reuters, among many others,” Fenlon wrote.