Update | Net users slam Xinhua for error naming Istanbul as 2020 Games host winner
A newspaper in Changsha, Hunan, had to recall hundreds of thousands of copies after it printed an erroneous report by Xinhua that Istanbul, not Tokyo, had won the right to host the 2020 Olympics.
A newspaper in Changsha, Hunan, had to recall hundreds of thousands of copies after it printed an erroneous report by Xinhua that Istanbul, not Tokyo, had won the right to host the 2020 Olympics.
reported the incident on its verified Sina microblog account, which also published a picture showing two copies of newspapers, one with Tokyo and the other naming Istanbul as the winning city on the front pages. A man verified by Sina microblog to be a deputy chief editor of the complained that Xinhua should "reflect on the mistake" and consider the losses it had caused to the newspaper nationwide.
The complaint was later deleted from his blog and a call to the newspaper's chief editor's office was not answered.
Xinhua's error was heavily criticised across the country, with internet users demanding that the news service apologise. "If Xinhua could not send someone to cover such a major news event, at least take the effort to verify the facts with the websites of official Olympic organising committees' websites or other news services," said one internet user.
