HTV responds to 'Drunk older brother says hi' airing map missing Hoang Sa, Truong Sa in English

On the 3rd of July, Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV) made an official announcement regarding the controversy surrounding the program "Big Brother Says Hi" allegedly not using a map that includes the Paracel and Spratly Islands, which had caused a stir on social media earlier.

"Big Brother Says Hi" is a program that is currently drawing a lot of attention from viewers (Photo: Vie Channel).

HTV stated that "Big Brother Says Hi" is a program that is jointly produced and broadcast with the message of honoring the beauty and courage of Vietnamese men, demonstrating the national spirit in the process of integration and development of the country.

"Episode 2 of the program aired on June 22 on HTV2 featured an image of the globe with a spreading symbol along with images of the program to show that it is a highly infectious program.

The image of the globe in the video is purely symbolic in 3D to convey the idea of the program's production team. The 3D globe image encompasses the entire land, oceans, islands, clouds, and does not depict the administrative borders of countries, regions, territories...

The segment showing the spinning globe with clouds covering it happens very quickly (3 seconds) and in a very small scale. This symbol does not accurately represent the characteristics of a map because it does not clearly show the administrative boundaries of countries, regions, territories. The information that the image of the globe (a 3D model simulating the Earth) is a map is inaccurate," HTV stated.

Ho Chi Minh City Television also mentioned that the capture of a single frame by some websites and the information presented as mentioned above "is coercive and misleads viewers into believing that this is a Vietnamese map that does not show the Paracel and Spratly Islands."

The station appreciates the feedback from viewers and has worked seriously with the production team to learn from the experience and avoid misunderstandings like the one mentioned in future programs.

Earlier, social media circulated images from episode 2 of "Big Brother Says Hi" showing that the program displayed a globe map of Vietnam without the Paracel and Spratly Islands. This image sparked debates, criticisms, and demands for the producers to come forward and explain the situation.