NHK President Apologizes Again over Chinese Staffer’s Remarks Over Senkaku Islands, Saying NHK Was ‘Insensitive to the Kinds of Risk’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:26 JST, September 19, 2024

NHK President Nobuo Inaba apologized again on Wednesday over controversial comments made by an externally contracted staff member in Chinese-language news aired on its international and domestic radio channels in August.

“NHK has been somewhat insensitive to [these kinds of] risks,” Inaba said at a regular press conference.

In the radio news aired on Aug. 19, the male staff member, who was contracted by an affiliated entity at the time, made controversial comments, including saying that Japan’s Senkaku Islands were part of Chinese territory.

According to an NHK investigation, the man, who was translating and reading news in Chinese, had expressed his concerns in the past, saying that China was a one-party dictatorship, and it was impossible to predict its political situation. He had then requested NHK to refrain from publishing his personal information. He also asked NHK staff if he could refuse translation work, giving the Senkaku issue as an example.

Prior to the Aug. 19 broadcast, the man had objected to the content of the script, saying “It would put an individual in danger.” However, the Japanese public broadcaster still had him read the script.

At the time of the military coup in Myanmar, NHK removed a staff member who was supposed to read the news in Burmese from that assignment considering the risk against the member’s family back home, an NHK official in charge said.

Asked about the difference in how the two people were treated, the NHK official said, “The member reading Burmese-language news gave us very specific examples [of the risks], and specificities created the difference.”