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A Canadian broadcaster has ordered its staff not to refer to 9/11 as a "terrorist attack", an internal memo has revealed.
Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the atrocity, which killed 2,977 people, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has told staff to avoid using the words "terrorism" and "terrorist".
The CBC's long-standing policy sparked fury during its coverage of the October 7 attacks in Israel, when journalists were sent an email instructing them to avoid describing the massacre as a terror attack.
The latest internal memo, leaked to the Toronto Sun, read: “Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.
“The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed.”
The memo was signed off "BB", identified as Basem Boshra, senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News.
However, the Canadian broadcaster has stood by the guidance, arguing that describing events as "terrorist attacks" could put its impartiality at risk.
A CBC spokesman told the New York Post: “Our focus is to report the facts of such atrocities with accuracy, clarity and detail; to convey the scale and scope of violent acts wherever they occur; to quote the people affected, and to convey the views of officials and experts on these events. We bear witness.
The 25th anniversary of the atrocity, which killed 2,977 people, is just weeks away
|GETTY
“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 broadcaster only uses the terms when quoting others - despite Osama bin Laden himself describing the attacks as "blessed terror".
The Al-Qaeda leader said at the time: “[The West] condemns terror. We say our terror against America is blessed terror."
The CBC's stance has been blasted by FBI Director Kash Patel on social media.
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The CBC has stood by the guidance, arguing that describing events as 'terrorist attacks' could put its impartiality at risk
|GETTY
The senior Trump administration figure wrote on Friday morning: "Any agency in Canada that doesn’t publicly reject this bastardisation of history, and an insult to the souls lost during our largest terrorist attack in US history will no longer have friend in this FBI.
"Not to mention our heroes that responded in the aftermath. We will never forget 9/11."
The row comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Canada following a bitter trade dispute.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said his country is "at war" after President Donald Trump imposed a series of tariffs on its northern neighbour.
The CBC's stance has been blasted by FBI Director Kash Patel on social media
| GETTYNegotiations between the two countries collapsed late on Friday last week, prompting Washington to impose a 50 per cent tariff on a range of Canadian goods.
Mr Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England, said: "We were attacked. You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked.
"That's fine. We've got the reserves. We've got the resilience. We've got the plan. We've got the focus. We will respond."
Canada subsequently unveiled retaliatory tariffs of up to 50 per cent on nearly $28billion (£15billion) worth of American goods.
Mr Trump further inflamed tensions on Thursday by signing an executive order renaming Lake Ontario, which separates parts of the US and Canada, "Lake America".
Announcing the move from the Oval Office, the President declared that the name change was "effective immediately".