Broadcasting watchdog blasts government, LDP for pressuring NHK
The Asahi Shinbun: 7 November 2015
A third-party panel monitoring TV programming from an ethical standpoint criticized the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Nov. 6 for rebuking the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) over an investigative news program.
In its opinion paper on allegations the public broadcaster engaged in fabrication in a program production, the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) stated the government and the ruling party must not be allowed to interfere with TV content.
It is the first time that the BPO, which was established by NHK and private broadcasters to ensure the freedom of broadcasting and improve the quality of TV programming, has criticized the government and ruling party.
“The government must not be allowed to intervene in the content of an individual program,” said the organization’s Committee for the Investigation of Broadcasting Ethics.
“The ruling party tried to impose nothing but pressure to constrain the freedom of broadcasting and the autonomy (of NHK) to ensure the freedom, and such conduct must be strictly criticized.”
The committee investigated NHK for excessively dramatizing re-enactments in a “Close-up Gendai” news program that reported on scams involving religious organizations last year. It acknowledged NHK’s “serious violation of broadcasting ethics” in the report.
After the broadcaster’s in-house investigation panel concluded that the production team of a news program “excessively dramatized” and “deceptively edited” staged scenes in an episode aired in May 2014, internal affairs and communications minister Sanae Takaichi issued an administrative reprimand to NHK in April.
The LDP’s Research Commission on Info-Communications Strategy also summoned an NHK executive in April for a briefing on the matter.
“For the government, especially the internal affairs and communications minister who have the authorization authority over TV broadcasters, to deliver such a reprimand should be regarded as highly problematic,” said lawyer Kazuharu Kawabata, the BPO committee chairman, during a news conference on Nov. 6.
Takaichi later defended her decision, saying she believes her rebuke was neither “excessive” nor “hasty.”
“The administrative reprimand is not legally binding and only a request to call for the recipient’s independent initiative,” the minister told reporters.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201511070026
The Asahi Shinbun: 7 November 2015
A third-party panel monitoring TV programming from an ethical standpoint criticized the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Nov. 6 for rebuking the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) over an investigative news program.
In its opinion paper on allegations the public broadcaster engaged in fabrication in a program production, the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) stated the government and the ruling party must not be allowed to interfere with TV content.
It is the first time that the BPO, which was established by NHK and private broadcasters to ensure the freedom of broadcasting and improve the quality of TV programming, has criticized the government and ruling party.
“The government must not be allowed to intervene in the content of an individual program,” said the organization’s Committee for the Investigation of Broadcasting Ethics.
“The ruling party tried to impose nothing but pressure to constrain the freedom of broadcasting and the autonomy (of NHK) to ensure the freedom, and such conduct must be strictly criticized.”
The committee investigated NHK for excessively dramatizing re-enactments in a “Close-up Gendai” news program that reported on scams involving religious organizations last year. It acknowledged NHK’s “serious violation of broadcasting ethics” in the report.
After the broadcaster’s in-house investigation panel concluded that the production team of a news program “excessively dramatized” and “deceptively edited” staged scenes in an episode aired in May 2014, internal affairs and communications minister Sanae Takaichi issued an administrative reprimand to NHK in April.
The LDP’s Research Commission on Info-Communications Strategy also summoned an NHK executive in April for a briefing on the matter.
“For the government, especially the internal affairs and communications minister who have the authorization authority over TV broadcasters, to deliver such a reprimand should be regarded as highly problematic,” said lawyer Kazuharu Kawabata, the BPO committee chairman, during a news conference on Nov. 6.
Takaichi later defended her decision, saying she believes her rebuke was neither “excessive” nor “hasty.”
“The administrative reprimand is not legally binding and only a request to call for the recipient’s independent initiative,” the minister told reporters.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201511070026
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