ITV News sorry over 'coloured' remark on football racism report
ITV NEWS has apologised after using the term "coloured" during a report about racism in football on Wednesday.
Richard Pallot, a general news journalist, used the word twice while reporting on David Cameron’s summit on racism in football.
There were complaints on the social networking website Twitter after the pre-recorded report was broadcast at 1.30pm yesterday.
An ITV News spokeswoman said: “ITV News apologises for the inappropriate use of the word 'coloured’ in a report on racism and football in the News at 1.30.
“We take this error very seriously and we regret any offence caused.’’
The spokesman confirmed that the term was used twice in the report — once when talking about racism in the game in general, and on another occasion when referring to the small number of black football managers.
Programme-makers apologised on Twitter and removed the video package from the news website. They also took the package out of the repeat show on ITV+1.
One Twitter user said: “When was it okay to use the word coloured? And to make it worse is that you were talking about racism! #itvnews.”
Another added: “Just watched news on ITV about racism in football?... He said 'throwing bananas at coloured players’! Don’t they mean black players?”
