Cyprus Mail staff recall newsroom response to September 11 attacks

Nicosia, Cyprus. Cyprus Mail staff working on September 11, 2001, recalled how the attacks on New York’s Twin Towers abruptly reshaped the newspaper’s plans for the following day.

A day remembered

The attacks, which occurred 25 years ago, remain associated with personal memories of where people were, including rooms, conversations and phone calls.

One account recalled watching the second plane strike while standing in front of a television screen in a London department store.

Newsroom limitations

For Cyprus Mail employees, the attacks were the largest breaking news story in decades. They unfolded at a time when internet access was limited by unreliable dial-up connections and before smartphones, social media and artificial intelligence.

News websites, where available, were basic, while journalists relied on television broadcasts, telephone calls and news wires for information and images.

Front page plans suspended

By the afternoon of September 11, plans for the next day’s Cyprus Mail edition were nearly complete, according to Jean Christou, the newspaper’s chief reporter at the time.

“It was a Tuesday, I remember,” Christou said. “We had an afternoon story meeting and we had decided on the front-page article for the next day.”

At about 3.50pm in Cyprus, local news editor Kosta entered the newsroom and told colleagues not to worry about the front page because a plane had hit the towers.

Staff initially believed that a small plane had been involved, Christou said. After the newsroom turned on the television and saw the second plane strike, all other work was put on hold.

Twenty-five years later, much of what followed remains a blur, Christou said.