 JCP opposes NHK budget bill Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi at a press conference on March 14 stated that the JCP is opposed to the proposed FY 2005 budget for NHK. Reasons Ichida gave for the JCP's opposition included the fact that NHK has not admitted that it violated the Broadcast Law when it allowed senior Liberal Democratic Party members to put pressure on NHK to alter a TV program. He also criticized NHK for failing to make efforts to find the truth about allegations of cover-ups of diversion of funds by its producers. One scandal after another involving NHK staff members were revealed in 2004, and NHK President Ebisawa Katsuji and two other top executives were forced to resign in January 2005. The number of households refusing to pay viewer fees to NHK amid the series of scandals reached 560,000 in February. Although NHK had estimated that viewing-fee revenue in FY 2005 will be 7.2 billion yen less than the previous year, the number is expected to be larger. (end) |