CBC will describe the 9/11 attacks as terrorism after criticism over an internal memo. The exception aims to restore clarity while preserving its broader attribution policy.

Canada’s public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada said on Friday it will make an exception to its usual policy on using the term “terrorism” and will describe the 9/11 attacks as terrorism after criticism over an internal memo restating its long-standing rule.

The move followed backlash from FBI Director Kash Patel, the US ambassador to Canada, Republican lawmakers in the US and Canada’s Conservative party after reports about a memo sent to staff ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Under CBC/Radio-Canada’s standards, like those followed by some other news organisations including The Associated Press, reporters do not usually describe specific events as terrorist attacks unless they are quoting someone else’s words. In a blog post on Friday afternoon, Basem Boshra, senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, said the broadcaster was making an exception for 9/11.

Boshra said a “leaked excerpt” of the broadcaster’s language policy had raised questions that CBC 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.”

He also said CBC News “has never said what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, was not terrorism, as some commentators have stated in recent days”. He added that the broadcaster had reported “fully and accurately” on the reasons and motivations for the attacks as determined by police, governments and an independent commission, and had “just made sure to do it with attribution”.

The controversy 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”. CBC spokesperson Kerry Kelly later told 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 favours the use of these terms with attribution in our reporting, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organisations”. Kelly did not provide a copy of the memo.

CBC also pointed to a 2023 blog post by editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon, who wrote: “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.” The issue drew sharp reactions in the United States. Patel wrote in an online post late Thursday: “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.” A group of Republican representatives in Congress posted: “What possible motive could there be for sanitizing the worst terrorist attack on American soil? Care to explain, @Canada?”

On Friday, US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra shared Patel’s post and said the FBI had been responsible for or instrumental in disrupting terrorist and violent criminal organisations operating in Canada multiple times this year. He 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.”

In Canada, Culture Minister Marc Miller praised CBC’s decision on social media, calling it a “welcome change to what was a piece of pedantic and foolish guidance that caused legitimate anger”. Less than an hour before Boshra’s post, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said in a press release that the Canadian government “has always recognized 9/11 as the deadliest terrorist attack in history, and we unequivocally condemn terrorism in all its forms”.

With this exception, CBC has said it will describe the 9/11 attacks as terrorism while continuing its broader practice of attributing causes and motivations to officials and experts when reporting on new acts of politically or ideologically motivated violence.

With PTI Inputs