China’s flag carrier, Air China, has reportedly demanded an apology from the UK’s The Guardian newspaper for using a picture featuring an Air China cargo plane in one of its reports.
The Beijing-headquartered Air China, one of the “big three” airlines of the communist country, claimed that the use of the picture of its cargo plane by the publication created a negative image of the company.
Published on Monday (February 22), The Guardian report said engine parts had dropped from a Boeing 747 cargo plane in the Netherlands, resulting in injuries to people. The London-headquartered publication apparently used a picture of a cargo plane that belonged to Beijing’s Air China airlines, along with the report.
The picture was later changed by The Guardian, however, no apology was issued to the Chinese airline.
On Thursday (February 25), the Chinese Embassy said that while it had noticed the change of picture, it had not received an apology from The Guardian for posting “misinformation”.
The embassy has urged the British media outlet to learn from its misconduct.
According to China’s state-owned Global Times, the Chinese Embassy urged the media outlet to abide by the professional ethics of journalism, discard arrogance and prejudice.
Moreover, it encouraged the British media house to report on China and its development in an objective, fair and balanced manner.
While protesting against the misconduct, the Chinese Embassy said that there was an immediate need for The Guardian to issue an apology.
However, The Guardian has not responded with an apology, with only a note being left at the end of the news report that says, “The image on this article was changed on 23 February 2021,” GT said.
The spokesperson of the Chinese embassy said, “This misuse of the picture was false reporting and misinformation, and affected the image of a Chinese enterprise.
“Such misinformation is not uncommon in some Western media reports, which betrays their disregard for journalistic ethics and deep-rooted bias against China.”
“China urges the relevant media to stop seeing China through ‘tinted glasses’ and view the country and its development in an objective and fair manner,” added the spokesperson.
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