TOYKO — A South Korean television network apologized on Saturday for using inappropriate images and captions to describe participating countries during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games.
As Olympic delegations marched in Japan National Stadium, MBC used split-screen images for the countries, Japan Today reported.
The network used images of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster for Ukraine, “an unstable political situation due to the assassination of its president,” for Haiti, salmon for Norway, pizza for Italy and a promotional bitcoin poster for El Salvador when each nation entered the stadium, Reuters reported.
MBC also referred to the Marshall Islands as “once a nuclear test site for the United States,” and Syria as the country that has “a civil war going on for 10 years,” according to Reuters.
I am italian. Could've been worse for us, honestly
— Kuma (@Kumawastooshort) July 23, 2021
The broadcaster issued an apology after the ceremony, saying that “inappropriate images and captions were used to introduce some countries.”
“We apologize to those countries including Ukraine and our viewers,” the network said in its statement.
For the Marshall Islands, it said "was once a nuclear test site for the US, and is composed of more than 1,200 islands." El Salvador was introduced with a picture representing Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/VNvFYRAskX
— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) July 23, 2021
Korean here. That does NOT reprents the way how we see those countries. We were shocked by the rudeness of MBC, And we started to criticize immediately. The photo below says MBC:Shame of country, and got 5700RTs. MBC shamed all of us. Sorry to all countries represented. pic.twitter.com/nfE0UG92ek
— 라부닥🔰 (@ekrfkq_qndifTl) July 24, 2021
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