This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
FRANCE has been hit by a new racism row just days after two doctors suggested that a Covid-19 vaccine should be trialled in Africa.
News channel BFMTV was forced to apologise after one of its reporters was caught on microphone whispering “they are burying the Pokemons” during coverage of China’s day of mourning for its coronavirus victims.
Emmanuel Lechpyre was branded “shockingly insensitive” and “a racist” after the comments were broadcast on Saturday during live coverage of the three-minute-silence observed across China, where 3,300 people have died from Covid-19.
He apologised and said he did not know that his microphone was turned on.
“I allowed myself to say something totally inappropriate, thinking that the microphones were off. I am very sorry,” the BFMTV business reporter said.
It was pointed out on social media that Pokemon was in fact Japanese with the news channel flooded with complaints of racism. BFMTV boss Marc-Olivier Fogiel apologised to viewers for the comments.
Last week two French doctors were branded racists after they called for a potential Covid-19 vaccine to be trialled in Africa, comparing it to HIV drug trials on prostitutes.
