China Fines Sony ¥1M for Announcing a Camera on a Controversial Date
Sony has been fined 1 million yuan by the Chinese government for “damaging the dignity of the Chinese state” for advertising an announcement for a new product last July, on the day historically associated with the start of the Sino-Japanese War.
Back in July, Sony postponed the launch of what would eventually be revealed as the ZV-E10 when it faced backlash from China over the chosen launch date. The announcement was originally planned for July 7 which was seen as an insult to the Chinese as it was the 84th anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China that would spark the Sino-Japanese War and bring World War II to Asia. The war would last for eight years.
Sony published a teaser for the event on its Alpha Universe website as well as its YouTube channel that showed an announcment time of July 7 at 10 AM eastern, but that later was replaced by a message that said the announcement had been postponed.
Sony Europe told the press that the postponement was due to lack of parts availability, but the real reason was due to backlash the company had received out of China. Sony eventually published a statement on China’s Weibo social network to apologize for the choice of date and for causing public confusion and anger.
Our company attaches great importance to the concerns of the majority of netizens!
Our company originally planned to release new products at the domestic professional exhibition on 7-10 of this month, and broadcast the new product introduction video online on the first day of the exhibition.
Due to our poor work arrangements, we have caused misunderstanding and confusion in the selection of the date.
We apologize for this and cancel the related event arrangements as soon as possible!
Thank you for your continued support!
Sony would eventually push the announcement to July 27 when it officially revealed the ZV-E10.
Japan’s Kyodo News reports that the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau in Chaoyang District in Beijing issued the fine of 1 million yuan (about 17.7 million yen or about $156,400) to the Chinese division of Sony for “damaging the dignity of the Chinese state” over the incident.
Image credits: Elements of header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
