Western media ugly, not athletes: China slams Reuters, CNN over Olympics photos, headlines
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Western media ugly, not athletes: China slams Reuters, CNN over Olympics photos, headlines

The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka posted screenshots of Reuters reports on Chinese athletes who won gold at Tokyo Olympics, accusing it of bias and deliberately using 'ugly' images.

Pia Krishnankutty    
Screenshots of the tweets posted by the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka, claiming Western media was biased against China | Twitter

Screenshots of the tweets posted by the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka, claiming Western media was biased against China | Twitter

New Delhi: 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.

Several users on Twitter pointed out that other Chinese newspapers used the same image that the embassy identified as “ugly”.

A day later, the embassy posted another tweet, this time of a Reuters report on China’s Li Fabin winning the gold in the men’s 61-kg-weightlifting category. The image accompanying the report was of a smiling Li.

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CNN’s ‘anti-China’ headline

In separate tweet posted on 24 July, the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka also hit out at American broadcaster CNN for publishing an “anti-China” headline.

“Anyone who still consider the embassy over-reacting on western MSM reporting against China and believe them unbiased, non-political & independent, please see today’s best (so far) anti-China/humanity/#Olympics headline presented by CNN from #Tokyo. Sorry for their poor people (sic),” it said.

The embassy was referring to CNN‘s coverage of the first gold medal of the Olympics, which was claimed by Chinese shooter Yang Qian, coupled with a headline that read: ‘The first day of the 2020 Olympics begins with gold for China and more Covid-19 cases’.

Social media users clapped back, terming the embassy’s statement “propaganda” while others wondered if the screenshot posted by the handle had been edited.

(Edited by Manasa Mohan)

Also read: Can the Tokyo Olympics help bring the world together?