The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reversed internal guidance that had told journalists not to describe the 11 September 2001 attacks as terrorism without attribution, after a wave of criticism from US and Canadian politicians and officials. The reversal followed reporting that a memo from CBC's senior director of journalistic standards, Basem Boshra, had instructed staff to avoid calling 9/11 a terrorist attack unless the term was attributed to someone else, prompting accusations that the broadcaster was sanitising history and downplaying the atrocity.

Critics spanned both countries and the political spectrum, including New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, former New York Governor George Pataki, Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Canadian ministers Marc Miller and Gary Anandasangaree, FBI Director Kash Patel and US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra. CBC said on Friday it had adjusted its guidance to clarify that direct attribution is not required when describing 9/11 as terrorism, though it had earlier defended the original wording as a longstanding attribution policy before later acknowledging the leaked memo had caused "concern, anger and hurt". The attacks, in which 19 al-Qaeda hijackers crashed four planes including two into New York's World Trade Center, occurred almost 25 years ago and remain the deadliest terrorist attacks in history.