On the 20th, Reuters sent an email to the Global Times, saying that they had seen reports that the wrong picture used by Reuters in a report had caused public outrage among Chinese netizens.
Reuters said in an email that they deleted and corrected the error "immediately" as soon as they found it, saying "we apologize for the offense we caused by the incident."
Reuters asked the Global Times to publish its statement in an email, the full text of which is as follows:
Sadly, a post on our account contained a photo of a Chinese soldier in an oxygen tank, but it wasn't properly described. We deleted and corrected the tweet as soon as we realized our mistake, and we apologize for the offense.
Reuters retweets "exclusive report"
On the evening of the 18th, Reuters forwarded an "exclusive report" on the social platform, claiming that "Chinese professors at top European universities have cooperated with the Chinese military laboratory to expose monkeys to extreme altitude conditions to study their brains and develop a new drug to prevent brain damage." And under the post, it was accompanied by a photo of a PLA soldier who was inhaling oxygen indoors.
It is reported that this picture is taken from the official website of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, which is a photo news published by China National Defense Daily on October 25 this year, and is a scene of the border defense company of a border defense regiment of a border defense regiment in the micro-compression oxygen chamber for health care treatment.
Reuters "corrected" but did not apologize!
As soon as the post was published, it quickly triggered the anger of Chinese and foreign netizens, and people invariably issued denunciations, believing that Reuters' move contained a vicious metaphor and was undoubtedly an act of racial discrimination.
Subsequently, Reuters, realizing that it was "inappropriate", repeatedly revised the post and wording, but never publicly apologized for the reasons and practices of the picture. What's more, Reuters has kept two photos of PLA soldiers in the main text of the report, with no intention of deleting them.
On the afternoon of the 19th, the original post has been deleted, but the screenshots of the post and comments have been widely disseminated on social media at home and abroad.
At 2:15 a.m. on the 19th, Reuters Tweet reposted the report again. The post was succinct, with only a headline titled "Monkey Brain Research Related to the Chinese Military, Causing Dissatisfaction at Europe's Top Universities," with images that have nothing to do with PLA fighters.
At 6:12 a.m. on the 19th, Reuters repeated the old trick, re-promoted the report again, and put on the photos of the original PLA fighters. This time, Reuters revised the content of the post, deleting the words "exclusive report" and "monkey" and instead changing it to read: "A Chinese professor at a top European university conducts genetic research with the Chinese military, but does not disclose the connection between the two, which is the latest case of how China pursues military-civilian technology to use Western academia." ”
Just click on the body of the report linked to the post and you will find that Reuters has still not made any changes. It not only prominently writes "Monkey Brain Research" in the title, but also includes two photos of PLA soldiers in its 7 internal pictures.
About 6 hours after the post was posted, Reuters, which again realized that it was "inappropriate", sent another "picture correction" post. It repeated the headline with the word "monkey" in the first part of the post, adding that "we have deleted a previous post because it contained a wrong photo"; in the second part it went on to argue, "We have deleted an earlier post that was accompanied by a photo of a Chinese soldier taking oxygen indoors, which may have caused offense." ”
At 12:00 noon on the 19th, Reuters tweeted another "picture correction" statement.
Netizens demanded a public apology
After all, this post did not calm the anger of netizens, and it failed to cover up people's memories of Reuters' bad deeds. "It's not enough to just correct it, it has to be publicly apologised, it's racism against all Chinese, you can't just do it when nothing happened."
"Reuters, I think your editor's brain needs to be repaired."
"Usually you have to apologize... But in any case we all know your intentions, you mean it! ”
"It's not the first time Reuters has done this, and it won't be the last..."
Integrated Global Times, Global Network, Observer Network
Source: An Jian, Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission