Japan Press Weekly

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2012 May 9 - 15 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

NHK top official to become TEPCO director

The NHK management committee chairman is going to be an outside director of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), stirring up distrust among viewers and listeners questioning whether the non-commercial broadcaster can offer a fair broadcasting service.

The government and TEPCO have recently decided to appoint Sudo Fumio, chair of the NHK board of governors, to a TEPCO executive position while remaining at NHK.

In protest against this policy, citizens and broadcasting-related workers on May 14 demanded that Sudo’s appointment be cancelled.

They argue that TEPCO is a subject of news coverage because the utility is an operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and that it would extremely undermine the public trust if a newsperson takes an executive post of a company subject to controversial news reports.