JCP requests NHK to broadcast election coverage based on facts

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP requests NHK to broadcast election coverage based on facts

The Japanese Communist Party on July 4 made representations to NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) regarding the accuracy of the public broadcaster's election coverage.

Ueki Toshio, head of the JCP Press Service Department, visited NHK headquarters in Tokyo and delivered the following letter:

In the NHK evening news yesterday, you reported the official start of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election campaign by focusing on a "ruling party" as an "opposition party."

This is misinformation that will mislead voters into making wrong assumption. We strongly request that NHK review such sloppy reporting tactics and stick to the facts.

"News 7" and nightly "News Watch 9" yesterday (July 3) focused on the "possible change of forces" in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly by describing the Democratic Party as a main opposition party. The illustration used to present the distribution of seats in the metropolitan assembly treated the Democratic Party as an opposition party. The anchor said that the focus of attention would be "whether the governing Liberal Democratic and Komei parties can defend their majority with the LDP maintaining its number one position, or whether the Democratic Party can become the largest party in the assembly.

This misleading analysis is based on the premise that "the DPJ is an opposition force". On the contrary, the DPJ in the past four years has supported 99.3 percent of the bills submitted by the metropolitan government. Except for one budget draft that was proposed just before the gubernatorial election in 2007, the DPJ supported all budgets proposed by the LDP. As for the FY 2007 budget in question, the DPJ ended up accepting the account settlement.

The question whether it is a ruling party or an opposition party in the metropolitan assembly is important for voters when choosing a party. On the grounds that broadcast stations use public airwaves, they should be fair and accurate in their coverage. The influence of the misleading report will be immeasurable, and we call on you to review immediately the false report and broadcast an accurate picture of the position of the DPJ in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.

- Akahata, July 5, 2009