South Korean TV network apologizes for ‘inappropriate’ images during Olympic opening ceremony

A South Korean television network is apologizing for using “inappropriate” images and captions during its broadcast of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. 

South Korean network MBC used various questionable images to illustrate participating countries at Friday’s ceremony. 

MBC, for example, used images of pizza to describe Italy, Chernobyl for Ukraine and salmon for Norway as those countries were announced.  

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

MBC also ran a caption describing the current situation in Haiti relating to President Jovenel Moise’s assassination earlier this month and referred to the U.S Marshalls Islands as a former nuclear site for the U.S, according to Yahoo Sports. 

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

After swift criticism online, the South Korean network apologized, saying “inappropriate images and captions” were used to “introduce” the stories of each country, Reuters reported. 

해당 국가 국민과 시청자 여러분께 정중히 사과드립니다. pic.twitter.com/B9hmNi3LJb

— withMBC (@withMBC) July 24, 2021

“Inappropriate images and captions were used to introduce some stories. We apologised to those countries including Ukraine and our viewers,” MBC wrote in their statement. 

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics kicked off on Friday with U.S. swimmer Chase Kailz winning the first Gold Medal for Team USA in the men’s 400-meter individual medley final on Sunday.