FRANCE’S BROADCASTING WATCHDOG said Tuesday it was examining complaints that commentary during French TV coverage of the Rio Olympics has been “colonialist” and “xenophobic”.
The head of sport at state-funded France Televisions, Daniel Bilalian, has come under attack from an anti-racist group for his commentary of a segment of the opening ceremony about Brazil’s history in which he described African slaves as “necessary” for the country’s industrial development.
The Representative Council of Black Associations said the commentary for Friday’s opening ceremony had been “a veritable festival of mistakes, ineptitudes and colonial statements”.
Thomas Bouhail, a medal-winning Olympic gymnast who is working as an analyst on the gymnastics coverage, was widely criticised on Twitter for comparing Japanese competitors to “little Pikachus”, referring to the animated Pokemon characters.
The CSA watchdog said it had received at least two complaints from viewers and was studying the complaint from the anti-racist group.
France Televisions said in a statement it “regrets the commentary, understands the reactions and is taking a serious look at the situation”.
The head of France Televisions, Delphine Ernotte, will meet representatives from the anti-racist group after the Olympics.
More than one million people in France watched Friday’s opening ceremony despite it starting after midnight in the country.
Mayweather is a coward
Any man who hits a woman like he did is..
While they will both go down as 2 of the best pound for pounders, I think they’ll both also go down as the top two guys who devalued the sport of boxing as much as anybody else. I love boxing but if you look at the politics and corruption without boxing, it’s such an ugly sport.
If both men really wanted to prove their the best then they would have made this fight happen… Mayweather is the best of all time but not fighting Pac shows he wasn’t the bravest or most courageous fighter of all time and has selected a hard, talented but ultimately lower class fighter such as Maidana for his next fight… that’s where the true art of boxing has been lost over the last decade.
Once upon a time Pacquaio might have beaten Mayweather but that time had passed in afraid. Love him or hate him Mayweather is one of the best we’ve ever seen.
He continues to damage his credibility as a boxer and his fighting legacy with stupid throwaway comments like this.
If the challenging fighter isn’t a come forward brawler who walks into punches every round Mayweather has no interest in fighting them.
He will eventually give Pacquiao a shot so he can collect a massive payday, but only when Pacmans legs are completely gone, the same way he made Shane Moseley wait the best part of a decade until he was way, way past his prime and had the cheek to promote the farce as a “superfight”….
I’d love to see someone beat the shite out of Mayweather! …. Don’t think Pacquaio would be able too though..
Mayweather will never be beating. The greatest boxer of all time
Statistically
*beaten
I think what he is saying is pacman was using drugs when he had all the power. A little dig there
Good read, show the level of Mayweathers opponents to date:
http://www.badlefthook.com/2013/9/19/4747960/floyd-mayweather-and-the-10-greatest-unbeaten-fighters-of-all-time