Listen Now: 
The head of the Pacific Island Media Association is calling out Australian sportscasters for their wilful mispronunciation of Polynesian names.
Will IIlolahia says he sent off a letter to Foxtel over the calling of a weekend rugby double-header involving Fiji versus Papua new Guinea and Tonga against Samoa.
He says there was a huge response on social media against the way names were mangled, with some viewers saying they had to switch off the sound because they felt so insulted.
"Willie Ofahengaue is a well known Wallaby icon in Australia for more than a decade and his son plays for Tonga, and yet they were still calling him 'Off-a-hen-gah-way . Pangai was called Pan-guy. I mean how would these guys like to have their names basically mistrued," he says.
Mr Illolahia says Foxtel sent an apology, but there needs to be a programme of training its announcers in pronunciation of names from Aotearoa and te Moananui a Kiwa.
FULL INTERVIEW: WILL ILLOLAHIA
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
