Japan Press Weekly

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2015 September 30 - October 6 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Ex-NHK employees criticize NHK for abandoning any sense of objective reportage

A group of former NHK employees on October 1 visited NHK Broadcasting Center to hand over a letter to its audience service department, criticizing the broadcaster for becoming excessively supportive of the present government.

The letter criticizes the pro-government stance taken on NHK political programs and news reports since Momii Katsuto assumed the NHK presidency. This letter was sent to 235 NHK executives, including Momii and NHK governors.

As of now, more than 2,000 ex-NHK staff members have been associating themselves with a petition calling on the NHK management committee to dismiss Momii who often makes remarks justifying Japan’s past war of aggression.

Regarding the recently-enacted security-related legislation, the letter states that NHK in its news reporting failed to give enough information so that the public could accurately understand what exactly dangers the legislation would pose to the general public. The letter points out that NHK downplayed the news about the antiwar civic movements that grew to an unprecedented scale outside the Diet building.

The letter cites dissatisfaction expressed by NHK employees in the field, which is “We always try to cover the protest actions in front of the Diet building and young people’s antiwar movements such as SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy-s). Even though the director gave us an OK to cover the actions, the upper management ordered our stories to not be broadcast. This type of censorship has been occurring regularly.”

The letter expresses that NHK, as a public broadcast station, should go back to what it should be to respond to the public right to have access to objective analysis.

An increasing number of NHK workers have begun voicing their concern about NHK’s biased coverage. Some are even holding study sessions at their workplaces to address this issue. A former NHK employee said, “Many staffers are really concerned about the present direction NHK has taken. Some of them have even joined in the protest action outside the Diet building.”

Past related articles:
> Ex-NHK producer: Abe’s pressure changes role of public broadcasting [February 25, 2015]
> NHK shows increasing tendency to put voluntary restraint on programs critical of government policies [January 31, 2015]
> NHK refuses to air comedians’ political jokes [January 15, 2015]
> 1527 former NHK employees stand up to oust Momii as president [August 22, 2014]
> NHK union questions board’s ethics of public broadcasting [March 20, 2014]
> Turning NHK into gov’t publicity organ is totally unacceptable: media people [February 25&26, 2014]
> Abe tries to fill NHK top echelons with his friends [November 7, 2013]