Ukraine at the opening ceremony. A picture of Chernobyl was added to the left on South Korean TV.
Ukraine was featured with a picture of Chernobyl at the Olympic opening ceremony on South Korean television. The excitement is great.
The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics was broadcast worldwide. Also to South Korea, where the audience wanted to show typical pictures of the participating countries. The selection was not always the right one, according to the verdict on social media.
The South Korean TV broadcaster MBC not only wanted to show live images, but also to convey knowledge, especially when the athletes marched in.
For each country, therefore, not only the gross domestic product but also the vaccination rate was mentioned. In addition, MBC showed typical photos for each nation, but choosing them did not always prove a lucky hand.
For Italy they used a pizza cliché and for Norway there was a salmon. More questionable was the selection of images for Haiti, where the uprisings after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse were chosen. The Ukraine is also interesting: a picture of Chernobyl was chosen, where the devastating reactor accident occurred 35 years ago.
Unfortunately, it is not known with which picture Austria was presented.
A Korean Twitter user apologized on behalf of the TV channel: “I am so sorry. This is embarrassing. MBC should apologize and hold the person responsible to account.”
An apology from the broadcaster followed later, according to “Bild”: “In today's broadcast of the opening ceremony, inappropriate photos were used to present countries such as Ukraine and Haiti. We apologize to viewers from Ukraine and other countries.”
