NATIONAL broadcaster RTM has apologised for mixing up the flags of several countries when showing the medal standings, the Star reported today.

Its director-general, Abu Bakar Ab Rahim, said RTM had apologised for the mistakes during news segments on Thursday and Friday night.

He said the mistakes occurred at the production level while updating latest the medal tally and vowed action to prevent a recurrence.

Images of screenshots of the latest gaffe to mar this year’s Sea Games have gone viral, and adding to the list organisational missteps that have angered other countries embarrassed hosts Malaysia.

Eight of the 11 participating countries – Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, and Laos – had the wrong flag attributed to them when the medal standings were broadcast on Friday.

One netizen described the flag placement as “all over the place”.

Also on Friday, national swimmer Keith Lim Kit Sern was tagged with the Singaporean flag and under the abbreviation “KUL” (Kuala Lumpur) instead of “MAS” (Malaysia) during the men’s 50m freestyle swimming finals.

On August 19, Indonesian Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi tweeted a picture of a page in the Sea Games souvenir book, which showed an upside down Indonesian flag.

His Malaysian counterpart Khairy Jamaluddin has apologised for the mistake, which the Indonesian minister described as very painful.

More mistakes came to light the following day, with netizens pointing out a wrong Brunei flag used during a diving event, and a newspaper also printing the Indonesian flag upside-down