The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka has criticised the Western media for using “ugly” images of Chinese sportspersons at the Tokyo Olympics, and publishing “anti-China” headlines in their reports.
“Among all the photos of the game, @Reuters has chosen this one, which only shows how ugly they are. Don’t put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organization. Shameless. Respect the spirit of #Olympics (sic),” the embassy’s official handle tweeted Saturday.
The tweet was in reference to a report by Reuters of China’s Zhihui Hou winning the gold medal in the women’s 49-kg weightlifting competition. The photo accompanying the report shows the athlete in the moment of her lifting a barbell, her face scrunched up from the effort.
Twitter users were quick to comment that there may be different interpretations of what may qualify as “ugly” or unflattering in moments of sport.
To this, the embassy said the mainstream media was ugly. “Never the athletes. They’re beautiful,” it added.
In a second tweet, the embassy had posted four screenshots of different Reuters reports of the Olympics from the same day, to show a contrast in the choice of images.
Be the first to comment