An under-fire Danish television station issued an apology on Twitter over the weekend for airing offensive comments that likened players of Morocco's national football team and their families to a family of primates.
TV 2 NEWS host, Christian Hogh Andersen, attempted to transition from a story featuring images of Moroccan players hugging their mothers and celebrating after winning matches at the World Cup in Qatar to the next news segment about animals and how they assemble to keep warm, by holding up a picture of monkeys.
"In continuation of the talk about Moroccans (players) and their families in Qatar, we also have an animal family gathering to keep warm,” he said.
The station expressed its deep regret over the incident. "We’re extremely sorry for the comments that drew links with the consecutive segment about animals. We sincerely apologize for it,” said the tweet.
TV 2 also issued a statement on its official website while acknowledging Andersen had drawn a link between family bonding to animals. "This can be perceived as a racist comment, and both TV 2 and Christian Hogh Andersen would like to offer a profound apology for it,” it said.
TV 2 News’ editor-in-chief, Anne Mette Svane, admitted that the comments were "both wrong and offensive.” She elaborated, "Although it was not the intention of the host, it is a remark that both our host and TV 2 disassociate from. This was a clear mistake and we apologize for it.”
Andersen also maintained that it was never his intention to draw a completely wrong comparison, which he unintentionally did, and realized it was completely wrong and offensive. He offered an unconditional apology for his comments.
