Senkaku Remarks on NHK: Why Did Public Broadcaster Allow ‘Personalization’ of Airwaves?

Editorial

17:24 JST, September 1, 2024

An incident occurred in which a personal, one-sided view that is contrary to the facts was broadcast both domestically and internationally by a public broadcaster. This is a serious problem that can be called a “hijacking of the airwaves,” so it is essential to thoroughly examine the situation and take measures to prevent a recurrence.

A man who was contracted with an affiliated entity made off-script, unauthorized remarks for about 20 seconds when reporting news about graffiti at Yasukuni Shrine on NHK international radio and other programs.

The man, who is a Chinese national, said in Chinese that the Senkaku Islands are “Chinese territory” and protested “NHK’s historical revisionist propaganda” and “unprofessional practices.” He also made remarks in English, including urging listeners not to forget the Nanjing massacre and wartime comfort women.

The role of international broadcasting is to communicate Japan’s government views and culture to foreign countries and Japanese nationals living abroad. This is NHK’s primary mission stipulated under the Broadcasting Law, and government subsidies are provided for its international broadcasting. The man’s remarks are extremely inappropriate, and they go against the purpose of broadcasting.

Broadcasts can be heard around the world. If personal and false claims are spread, they will cause misunderstanding and prejudice, and undermine Japan’s national interests. NHK should take the depth of this problem seriously.

A chief staffer who is an NHK employee and understands Chinese and an outside director were reportedly present during the broadcast, but since it was a live broadcast, they were unable to stop the presenter from making the remarks.

The fact that the remarks were aired for about 20 seconds and could not be blocked should not be overlooked. Because it was a live broadcast, an unforeseen situation should have been anticipated.

NHK issued an apology on the day of the incident through international radio and other broadcasts, and it later aired a special program to convey the government’s stance, including the view that the Senkaku Islands are inherently Japan’s territory. NHK President Nobuo Inaba also explained the circumstances and apologized for the matter in the Diet.

The man had been contracted with an NHK-affiliated organization and translated news scripts into Chinese and read them out since 2002. It has been learned that a person believed to be this man had appeared in a China-affiliated news outlet in Hong Kong. NHK has said that there were no leaks of information obtained through news gathering. However, the public broadcaster said it was not aware that the man had worked for the China-affiliated news outlet.

The NHK-affiliated organization terminated its contract with the man. NHK intends to seek damages from him. It is also necessary to scrutinize again to see if there are any other problems with his work in the past.

As a measure to prevent a recurrence, NHK said it has switched most of its news reports for international broadcasting to prerecorded materials. It is important to put in place a checking system involving multiple people not only to determine the appropriateness of presenters’ statements, but also to ensure the accuracy of news and the relevance of expressions.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 1, 2024)