 JCP appeals against court ruling in libel suit The Tokyo District Court on January 17 rejected the Japanese Communist Party's demand that Fuji Television Network broadcast corrections, apologize, and compensate for its false description of Japanese Communist Party affairs. Criticizing the ruling as unjust, the JCP on the same day decided to appeal the libel case to the Tokyo High Court. In a published statement on the same day, JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi protested the ruling that "overlooked a lie in the program." He stated, "The secretary was expelled for asking the security police to help him find employment, but the TV program gave viewers an impression that the JCP was obstructing the abduction issue from being elucidated." He also said: "From long ago the JCP has played an active role in examining the abduction issue. The JCP demands that Fuji TV fulfill its social responsibility as an information supplier by correcting, apologizing, and compensating for its misinformation." In a Fuji TV program aired in September 2003 as "nonfiction," the JCP was described as if it had expelled a former parliamentary secretary because he made efforts to settle the issue of abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. (end) |