Critics Lash Canada’s CBC for Restricting Use of Word ‘Terrorist’ in 9/11 Anniversary Coverage

TORONTO — Conservative politicians and commentators in Canada are slamming the national broadcaster over a recent memo warning staff not to use the words “terrorist” or “terrorism” without attribution when reporting on the coming 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.In the memo, first made public by the Toronto Sun, the standards editor at the publicly funded Canadian Broadcasting Corp. instructed journalists, “Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.” As alternatives, it suggested saying, “The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed.”The memo links back to the broadcaster’s internal language guide, which has long barred use of the two words except in quotes or when attributed to an individual. Similar policies are in place at other international news organizations including the BBC, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.However the memo is being broadly criticized as “shameful” by some politicians and others, who see it as an example of political correctness run amok. The attacks, in which terrorists hijacked four aircraft and turned them into weapons of mass murder, killed almost 2,977 persons including 24 Canadians.“Refusing to call it an act of terrorism dishonours the victims, their families, the survivors, and the first responders who witnessed the horrors of that day,” a member of Parliament from Alberta, Rachel Thomas, wrote on X. “9/11 was an act of terrorism. Full stop. Trying to sanitize or rewrite that history is deeply offensive and does a disservice to everyone who was affected by the attacks.”A former commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, Chris D. Lewis, also weighed in on his X account, writing, “If 9/11 wasn’t a terrorist attack, nothing is. This is disgraceful.”And Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella, who first disclosed the memo, wrote that the directive “is not fair and it is in no way accurate. It is rewriting the historical record. It is manipulating facts to fit an ideological perspective. It is cruel and despicable. It is Orwellian.”A public affairs spokeswoman for the CBC, Kerry Kelly, told the Toronto-based National Post that the network “preferences use of these words with attribution to credible sources, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organizations.”She referred back to an earlier memo, issued after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel, saying the terms may be “attributed to government officials, authorities, experts and politicians. But CBC News does not itself designate specific groups as terrorists, or specific acts as terrorism, regardless of the region or the events, because these words are so loaded with meaning, politics and emotion that they can end up being impediments to our journalism.” The network notes that its guidance on the use of the terms has been in place since 1982.The United States government-funded Voice of America became embroiled in a similar controversy when, days after the Hamas attack in Israel, its associate editor for news standards told reporters they could use the terms “terrorist attacks” or “acts of terror,” to describe the massacre but should “avoid calling Hamas and its members terrorists, except in quotes.” As justification, the editor said the term “terrorism” is often politically weaponised to “demonize individuals and groups with whom the speaker disagrees” and that it is better to let the facts speak for themselves. However the instruction prompted a fierce backlash from Congress and the agency rescinded the policy two months later.The Canadian government funds the CBC to the tune of about $866 million a year and appoints its board of directors but is prohibited by law from interfering in its editorial content.

Critics Lash Canada’s CBC for Restricting Use of Word ‘Terrorist’ in 9/11 Anniversary Coverage

Critics Lash Canada’s CBC for Restricting Use of Word ‘Terrorist’ in 9/11 Anniversary Coverage

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