Japan Press Weekly

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2014 March 19 - 25 [POLITICS]

NHK union questions board’s ethics of public broadcasting

The Japan Broadcasting Labor Union (NHK workers’ union - Nipporo) on March 10 released a statement raising a question with NHK leadership about their understanding of political independence of the public broadcaster, amid increasing public criticism against contentious remarks made by NHK President Momii Katsuto.

Nakamura Masatoshi, chairperson of the union consisting of about 7,300 members accounting for 70% of all NHK employees, told Akahata that President Momii and individual board members should be aware that NHK is a public broadcaster.

He said he wants to know what the president thinks the objectives should be in public broadcasting as well as the distance the public broadcaster should keep from politics.

Regarding many diverse opinions on NHK, the union chair said, “Agreeing with the president, some viewers and politicians complain that NHK programs are biased and criticize post-war democracy. But none of them tells us what NHK should be. If they tell us to be the government’s propaganda medium, we will adamantly oppose and will defend the public broadcaster’s raison d’etre.”

In response to Akahata’s argument that part of the LDP and conservatives in general are intending to guide the general public in a rightward direction by attacking NHK, the union chair said, “Public broadcasting is not the place to speak of ideologies. Before condemning our programs as being biased, I want them to watch the journalistic work we have built up.”

He went on to say, “Some people worry that we would cower under the president’s remarks. So far, no visible pressure has been put on us at work. When we go out to reporting locations, sometimes someone says something about Momii but not much. I heard that NHK’s international broadcasts are coming under overseas criticism.”

Nevertheless, NHK workers in the field have a strong sense of crisis about the possibility of actual pressure put on program making, he said, adding, “That’s why I want to ask the president what he thinks of broadcast ethics and the public welfare.”

He stated, “I see the problem this time as an important touchstone for the union members to think over again the way the broadcaster should be, things we cannot compromise, what kind of relationship we should form with viewers, and how we should act for the sake of independence from politics. One wrong move and Japan’s public broadcasting services as a whole will face a crisis.”

Past related article:
> Turning NHK into gov’t publicity organ is totally unacceptable: media people [February 25&26, 2014]
> NHK governor: Nanjing massacre never happened [February 5, 2014]
> Public anger growing at NHK president’s remarks [January 28, 2014]
> NHK chair justifies Japan’s wartime sex slavery system [January 26, 2014]