NHK Faces Administrative Guidance over Chinese Staffer's Remarks

Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's communications ministry Wednesday issued an administrative guidance to Japan Broadcasting Corp, or NHK, over unscripted remarks by an outside staff member in the public broadcaster's live Chinese-language radio news program.

In the program, aired on international and domestic channels on Aug. 18, the Chinese contracted employee said in Chinese that the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands are China's territory. He also said in English that Chinese people must not forget the Nanjing massacre and comfort women.

The ministry said the incident was deeply regrettable for opposing NHK's mission as an internationally active public broadcaster.

A broadcasting law clause stipulates that the broadcaster must edit programs in accordance with standards it set category by category.

Concluding that the newscast in question failed to comply with NHK's international news editing standards calling for accurately transmitting the Japanese government's official views, the ministry slapped the administrative sanction on the firm for violating the clause for the first time since September 2022.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]