"Olympic Spirit Desecration, Apology"... MBC President Finally Bowing Head After Repeated 'National Embarrassment-Level' Mistakes

Park Sung-je President "The Most Painful and Devastating Time Since Taking Office as MBC President"
"Judged to Have Issues with Basic Norm Awareness and Content Review System"
"Respecting Universal Human Values and Cultural Diversity in All Content Production"

Park Sung-je, President of MBC, is offering a public apology for the graphic and subtitle errors that occurred during the opening ceremony and men's soccer broadcast at a press conference held on the afternoon of the 26th at MBC in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Park Sung-je, president of MBC, expressed his apology by saying "I bow my head and apologize" regarding the controversy over MBC’s use of inappropriate photos and subtitles during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics broadcast.

On the 26th at 3 p.m., Park held a public apology press conference at the MBC Management Center in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, stating, "We aired a broadcast that damaged the Olympic spirit of friendship, solidarity, and harmony among the people of the earth during the global COVID-19 disaster situation," bowing his head.

He continued, "As the person ultimately responsible for MBC content, I sincerely apologize to the citizens of the countries who were hurt by the careless broadcast and the viewers who were disappointed due to the lack of consideration for the participating countries."

He added, "Last weekend was the most painful and devastating time since I took office as MBC president. Upon quickly investigating the initial circumstances, I judged that this issue cannot be resolved by disciplining just a few specific production staff, but rather points to problems in basic norm awareness and the content review system."

Park emphasized, "We will thoroughly identify the causes and responsibilities and carry out a large-scale reform. We will strengthen the broadcasting code, company regulations, and internal review rules, and establish an ethics committee and a content appropriateness review system to prevent recurrence of such incidents."

He also stated, "Not only in sports but in all content production, we will do our best to improve company-wide awareness that respects universal human values, cultural diversity, human rights, and gender equality, fulfilling the public responsibilities of a public broadcaster."

Inappropriate subtitles were used on the screen showing the Haiti team entering. / Photo by MBC

Earlier, on the 23rd, while broadcasting the Olympic opening ceremony, MBC caused controversy by inserting a photo of the Chernobyl nuclear accident when the Ukrainian team entered, mentioning the assassination of the president when introducing Haiti, and referring to Bitcoin when introducing El Salvador, among other inappropriate images.

Russian-born broadcaster Ilya Belyakov strongly criticized MBC for using a photo of Chernobyl when introducing the Ukrainian team.
Photo by Ilya, Twitter capture.

In response, Russian-born broadcaster Ilya Belakov posted photos of MBC’s opening ceremony broadcast on his Twitter, expressing anger by saying, "The person who made these subtitles must have thought, 'Oh, this is okay.' Why didn’t they insert a photo of the Sewol ferry when the South Korean athletes entered? How ignorant and clueless must one be to insert a photo of an exploded nuclear power plant?"

As the controversy escalated, MBC issued a statement on the 24th, apologizing for the problematic videos and subtitles, saying, "They were prepared with the intention of briefly introducing the teams entering by country during the opening ceremony in a short time. However, there was a significant lack of consideration and thought for the countries involved, and the review process was inadequate. There is no excuse for this mistake."

MBC is once again causing controversy by using inappropriate subtitles during the broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic football match. Photo by Online Community Capture.

However, MBC’s subtitle mistakes did not stop there. On the 25th, during the broadcast of the men’s soccer Group B second match between South Korea and Romania, MBC displayed the subtitle "Thank you, Marin" at the top of the screen during a commercial break, targeting the opposing team’s player Marius Marin who scored an own goal, sparking further controversy.

In addition, there have been frequent mistakes both big and small, such as briefly showing the subtitle "Ahn Se-young bronze medal" incorrectly when fencer Kim Jung-hwan won the bronze medal, drawing criticism domestically and internationally.

Meanwhile, Park previously criticized other media outlets on his social media during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, saying, "'Headlines like ‘Lee Sang-hwa’s Olympic three-peat fails’ are really annoying. Many media outlets still cannot keep up with the public’s level,'" criticizing other media.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.