 Summon former deputy chief cabinet secretary to answer questions in Diet on interference in NHK Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Sasaki Kensho on January 28 said that Nakagawa Shoichi, Economy, Trade and Industry minister, must be held responsible for his role in the politicians' interference in an NHK TV program. The NHK program in question was about the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery in 2000 and aired on January 29, 2001. Pointing out that some members of the "Young Dietmembers' Association to Think about Japan's History" visited NHK before the program was aired, Sasaki said it is illogical for Nakagawa, the association's chair at that time, to visit NHK after the airing of the program. Sasaki pointed out that Abe Shinzo, the deputy chief cabinet secretary and the association's secretary general at the time, openly denounced the program as "biased" before requesting NHK to be "fair and neutral" in producing programs. He also said that Abe, who is now the ruling Liberal Democratic Party deputy secretary general, cannot escape an inquiry into his "political interference" that allegedly led to a major alteration of the program. In answer to Sasaki, Nakagawa stated that he met NHK executives on February 2, 2001, after the program was aired, and that he just told them to be "fair" in dealing with the matter stressing that he never used his political influence to pressure NHK. Sasaki demanded that the Diet summon three NHK directors concerned with the program and Nagai Satoru, then NHK chief producer of the program who later revealed the politicians' interference in the program, as well as Abe, as unsworn witnesses before the house committee. (end) |