CBC Memo Repeats Guidance Against Calling 9/11 a Terrorist Attack
The memo restates CBC language guidance on 9/11 coverage as the broadcaster prepares for the attacks' 25th anniversary.
- An internal memo issued by Basem Boshra, CBC News' senior director of journalistic standards, instructed staff not to describe the September 11, 2001, attacks as "terrorist attacks" in coverage leading up to the 25th anniversary.
- The memo advised journalists to instead describe the events factual details, stating that hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Manhattan, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, resulting in the destruction of the World Trade Center.
- CBC Public Affairs defended the guidance, stating it restates a long-standing policy to use terms like "terrorist" or "terrorism" only with attribution rather than as independent editorial declarations.
- Network executives maintained that the policy aims to preserve journalistic impartiality, noting that loaded language can impede objective reporting on politically and emotionally sensitive events.
- Conservative MP Rachel Thomas called the memo "shameful," accusing the broadcaster of redefining "terrorism in a way that downplays the atrocity" of the attacks and dishonors victims and survivors.
121 Articles
121 Articles
Canadian Public Broadcaster Instructs Staff Not to Call 9/11 Attacks “Terrorist” – Reports
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada’s national public broadcaster, has instructed its journalists not to refer to the September 11, 2001 attacks as “terrorist attacks,” according to multiple media reports. The Toronto Sun reported Wednesday that CBC Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust Basem Boshra circulated a confidential memo to that effect ahead […]
Lorne Gunter: CBC flip-flop on calling 9/11 'terrorism' an exercise in disinformation
If there is anything to laugh at (and it’s ironically funny) in the discovery this week that the CBC advised against calling 9/11 a “terrorist attack,” is that the CBC executive who sent the confidential memo to editors and reporters was Basem Boshra, who goes by the entirely misleading title “Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust.”
NEWS HEADLINES: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation faces backlash after internal memo directing journalists to avoid calling 9/11 attacks a ‘terrorist attack’ surfaces
CBC Logo OAN Staff Brooke Mallory6:41 PM – Friday, August 28, 2026 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) faced political and public backlash after an internal memo surfaced directing journalists to avoid calling the September 11th attacks a “terrorist attack.” The directive, issued ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 2001 tragedy by CBC’s Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust, Basem Boshra, instructed newsroom staff n…
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation faces backlash after internal memo directing journalists to avoid calling 9/11 attacks a ‘terrorist attack’ surfaces
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) faced political and public backlash after an internal memo surfaced directing journalists to avoid calling the September 11th attacks a “terrorist attack.”
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