By Lydia Chen

China's Central Television Station on Thursday apologized for airing footage that showed three torchbearers pretending to donate money to earthquake victims in Sichuan Province as they actually didn't have money in their hands.

The two-minute clip was aired on Tuesday's 7pm newscast and was mistakenly broadcast due to a careless review by editors as they faced a tight deadline, the News Center of CCTV said in a statement yesterday.

The footage, which was shot by a Fujian provincial media group and then sent to CCTV, has caused wide criticism from viewers.

CCTV explained that torchbearers in the Beijing Olympic torch relay's Longyan leg in Fujian organized a donation ceremony soon after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Wenchuan on Monday.

The three female torchbearers all donated money that day, the statement said.

However, they were asked by photographers to make a gesture of donation again after the ceremony concluded, which caused a misunderstanding when broadcast on the news.

The footage was sent to CCTV without approval and supervision from the leaders of the Fujian media group while editors at CCTV overlooked the mistake.

The statement added that CCTV was sorry for the mistake and that it had apologized for any inconvenience caused to the three torchbearers.