Tokyo 2021: South Korean television apologizes for "inappropriate" images
The Italian delegation at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Olympics on July 23, 2021, was represented with a pizza-encrusted image, by the MBC channel.
REUTERS - PHIL NOBLE
Text by: RFI Follow
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MBC, South Korea's oldest broadcast television company, apologized on Saturday, July 24, after the many criticisms it received for its broadcast of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.
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A plate with salmon to present Norway, a pizza for Italy, a photo of rioters during the passage of the Haitian delegation or the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for that of the Ukrainian delegation: the images used by the Korean channel MBC to present the various delegations participating in the Tokyo Games during
the opening ceremony
sparked outrage on social networks.
South Korean broadcaster MBC used images to "represent" each country during the # Tokyo2020 Opening Ceremony.
Italy: pizza
Norway: salmon
Haiti: upheaval
Ukraine: Chernobyl pic.twitter.com/KpUXATuZld
- Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) July 23, 2021
But some captions embedded in the footage of the opening ceremony went even further.
MBC thus presented the Marshall Islands as “
a former nuclear test site for the United States
” and Syria “
the country whose civil war lasted 10 years
”.
Deeming
a posteriori
these images and comments "
inappropriate
", the South Korean broadcaster apologized this Saturday morning "
to the countries concerned, including Ukraine, as well as to [its] viewers
".
An apology deemed insufficient by many Internet users who call on the management of this channel to send an apology message in all languages and for each country concerned.
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