JCP lodges protest against broadcaster over airing false information

The Japanese Communist Party has filed a protest against a national television network over a fictitious drama that it aired disguised as nonfiction, giving false information about the expulsion of a man from the JCP.

Ichida Tadayoshi, JCP Secretariat head, met with Fuji Television Network officials on September 18 to demand that the network broadcast the necessary corrections to certain information supplied by the program entitled, "Truth Comes to Light for the First Time in 25 Years: A Complete Reproduction of Abduction by North Koreans".

The distortion involved in the program was about the expulsion from the JCP of a former secretary to a JCP Dietmember. The program created a scene showing that the former JCP parliamentary secretary was expelled from the party because of his "effort to uncover North Korea's abductions".

The JCP says that the program deliberately ignored the fact that he was expelled from the JCP in 1998 because he was found to have had a job interview in a restaurant with a National Police Agency security police officer.

In his meeting with the Fuji Television Network's public affairs official, Ichida pointed out that the program in question was in violation of the Broadcast Act, particularly the provision that broadcasters must be politically impartial, that they must report without distorting the facts, and that points at issue must be presented from as many viewpoints as possible.

Fuji Television never made inquiries with the JCP concerning the fact in the course of producing the program, Ichida added.

Pointing out that the Fuji Television Network libeled the JCP by disseminating false information about the JCP, Ichida demanded that corrections be broadcast in accordance with the Broadcast Act's Article 4. (end)