An Indian news channel came under Twitter fire on Friday evening, after it showed a video clip of one of South Korea's leading K-Pop girl groups, BlackPink, while airing a report on funeral strippers in China. Making the topic the top trend on Twitter worldwide, fans from all around the world, including those in India, demanded an apology from the channel.
Tweets that went viral, showed a part of the news segment where the music video played on screen, while, the title underneath read "strippers dance during funerals in China". A news anchor was also heard saying that the Ministry of Culture in China has declared the tradition indecent, and that the Chinese government will continue to work towards ending it.
Enraged BlackPink fans took to Twitter to express shock at the channel’s use of the clip, and to clarify that the clipping shown was from BlackPink’s "In Your Area" concert, in which the K-Pop group’s members Lisa and Jennie gave solo performances.
In Your Area is the first Japanese studio album by the four-member girl group. The music video was released digitally in 2018, on November 23. And, was first performed in December that year.
The outrage made hashtags #ApologiseNewsNation and #ShameOnYouNewsNation top trends on Twitter last night. Many asked the channel to stop objectifying and defaming the women shown in the video, and urged news channels against spreading fake news.
After the public outrage the channel posted a statement on Twitter, and said that the clip was used due to a “technical error”, and that they stood by their report.
@NewsNationTV tweeted: “We stand by our story, however by mistake or call it a technical error, a wrong video got uploaded, we have withdrawn the said video clip the moment we came to know about it. We have been honest to our stories, what we air, would always stand by it. We regret for this tech error.”
Last week, BlackPink found their way back to the Hot 100 with their latest single “How You Like That,” which tied their own previously-set record for the highest-charting song by a South Korean girl group in the history of the all-genre ranking.
According to a previous Gulf News report, their music video, which reportedly scored the biggest premiere in YouTube history, was top trending in the UAE, the same day of its release.
