Opinion: Media ethics in question over Australian athlete's Olympic slander

The slander made by Australian swimmer Mack Horton against his Chinese rival Sun Yang was an inappropriate remark by an individual athlete, before biased media reports spun it into a row between Olympic fans and sports authorities of the two countries.

Instead of highlighting the Olympic spirits and friendly bonds made by athletes from across the world in Brazil, a few Western media outlets, both mainstream and tabloid, sank so low to exacerbate verbal clashes and biases against the Chinese swimming star.

Their reports deliberately neglected the fact that Sun's three-month ban in 2014 was due to taking trimetazidine to treat his heart condition and failed to report for a therapeutic exemption, since the drug was only put in the WADA banned substance list in the same year.

The anti-doping authorities have cleared Sun's name and ruled him clean, but such rules and facts were disregarded by some Australian and British media, who continued to label him a "drug cheat" and even go into personal attack of Sun's teeth shape and playful interactions with the audience.

To keep the "exciting" row between the two athletes going, some media outlets persistently asked Horton and Sun for "comments" and "responses," overstepping the boundary to abetting and luring.

Sun was wise enough to stay out of the hype created by predatory media, declining to offer comments on Horton and focusing on the competition.

After winning his first 200m freestyle gold medal on Monday, Sun thanked his coaches for strong support, including his former Australian legendary coach Dennis Cotterell.

Horton, whether he was using the slander as a "tactic" or just has a big mouth, needs to realize that he has been used by some media to create attention, as making fun of Brazil's Olympic preparations was not on trend anymore.

Freedom of expression should not be abused by some irresponsible Western media outlets to flame hatred. Such biased and malicious reports have already fanned bitter feelings between Australian and Chinese netizens, seriously distracting the Olympics' upbeat theme, and risk spiraling into an unnecessary political row. Endi