A committee of the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO) said Friday that a Tokyo Olympics documentary program produced and aired by NHK included a serious breach of broadcasting ethics.
The program in question followed film director Naomi Kawase and others involved in creating the official documentary film of last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
The BPO committee concluded that subtitles on the program claimed a man had been paid to participate in an anti-Olympics rally, though in reality the man hadn’t participated in such a demonstration. The committee criticized NHK for neglecting to check journalistic facts.
The committee also found that NHK edited footage of the man talking about a different demonstration in a way that made it seem as if he was talking about an anti-Olympic rally.
The committee pointed out that NHK failed to correct the subtitles even though the program was previewed six times.
