South Korean TV apologizes for offensive coverage of Olympic opening ceremony
Seoul, Jul 26 (EFE).- The head of the South Korean TV network Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation on Monday apologized for the controversial and offensive coverage of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“I offer my sincere apologies with my head down to those who had to endure our careless and reckless coverage and to the viewers we disappointed,” Park Sun-jae said at a presser.
During its coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Parade of Nations, MBC broadcast an image and a text to introduce each team as they appear.
It used photographs of pizza and salmon to introduce Italy and Norway, respectively, but more controversially showed images of Chernobyl when the Ukraine team emerged, and images of violent protest for the Haiti team in the context of the recent assassination of president Jovenel Moïse.
The company “will make every effort to prevent something like this from happening again,” Park said.
He also apologized for the message broadcast during the intermission of a men’s football match pitting South Korea against Romania thanking Marius Marin for scoring an own goal that gave the Asian team the lead. EFE
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