According to the Toronto Sun, an internal CBC memorandum provides instructions on how to cover the 9/11 attacks. The document recommended that journalists focus on facts and, instead of using the term "terrorist attacks", indicate that passenger planes were hijacked, which then led to disasters in New York, near Washington and in Pennsylvania. The guidelines also point to the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York.
The document was signed with the initials "BB". Toronto Sun reporters identified the author as Basem Boshra, CBC News' senior director of journalistic standards and public trust.
CBC confirmed the existence of such guidelines. However, the station emphasized that it was not about questioning the nature or facts regarding the events of September 11, but about the long-standing rule regarding the use of the terms "terrorist" and "terrorism".
CBC spokeswoman Kerry Kelly explained that these words are too loaded with political and emotional connotations, so they can hamper journalistic work.
"CBC's long-standing language guidelines on the terms 'terrorist' and 'terrorism' favor the use of these words with attribution, a practice shared by many of the world's leading journalism organizations. Our CEO and Editor-in-Chief have written publicly on this topic," Kelly said.
She said that the task of journalists is to present in detail the facts regarding crimes, the scale of violence, victims' accounts and the positions of officials and experts. In CBC's opinion, however, reporters should not independently assign the term "terrorists" to specific groups or qualify specific actions as "terrorism."
CBC's policy on the use of the word "terrorism" has caused controversy before. Questions regarding the way of formulating information appeared, among others: while reporting on the attack by Hamas and other groups on Israel on October 7, 2023. In 2023, then-editor-in-chief and CEO of the CBC, Brody Fenlon, urged journalists to be "extremely careful" when using the terms "terrorist" and "terrorism."
The argumentation remained similar: a journalist should primarily present verified facts and attribute political or legal qualifications to specific sources.
The new guidelines were criticized by, among others, Rachel Thomas, an MP from the opposition Conservative Party of Canada. The politician described the CBC's recommendations as "disgraceful." In her opinion, the refusal to call the September 11 attacks a terrorist attack is disrespectful to the victims, their families, survivors of the attacks, and rescuers participating in the response after the attacks.
CBC responds that its policy does not mean denying facts or relativizing violence. The only point is that journalists should not present the term "terrorism" as their own qualification, but indicate who uses such a term.
On September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers took control of four airliners in the United States. Two of them hit the World Trade Center towers in New York. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington. The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. The disaster occurred after passengers and crew members tried to take control of the machine. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks. people.
Al-Qaeda, then led by Osama bin Laden, was responsible for organizing the attacks. The attacks became one of the most important events of the early 21st century and led to fundamental changes in American security policy and the United States' launch of the global "war on terrorism."
Encyclopedia Britannica defines terrorism as the intentional use or threat of violence to create fear among a population and to coerce a government or society to pursue specific political, religious, or ideological goals.
In the case of 9/11, the perpetrators' motivations were related to the ideology of al-Qaeda, and their actions were intended to kill large numbers of people, create fear, and influence U.S. policy. That is why the events of September 11 are commonly referred to as terrorist attacks.
It is also important that the term "terrorism" itself is not only a category used by Western media. This term was also used by representatives of Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, where most of the kidnappers came from. Osama bin Laden also referred to the term "terrorism", although he used it primarily in reference to the actions of his opponents.
However, this does not change the fact that CBC adopted a different editorial principle: journalists are primarily supposed to report facts and indicate the sources of specific qualifications, instead of formulating them on their own behalf.
