NHK’s program War-Time Sexual Violence Under Question presented as “truth” a mock tribunal staged by the activist Yayori Matsui and North Korean agents, while excluding critical media from coverage. Even NHK staff were involved in the production. This section exposes the structural bias of Japan’s public broadcaster and the failure to enforce real accountability.

This is a continuation of the previous chapter.
All bold emphasis in the text except for the headline is mine.

Truly a Mouthpiece of the Japan Teachers’ Union

Considering the enormous influence of television, such absurdly misguided reporting attitudes should be strictly restrained.
In that sense, the NHK program War-Time Sexual Violence Under Question, which became the starting point of the Asahi Shimbun’s fabricated reporting scandal, should have been dealt with even more severely.

The mock tribunal staged jointly by the notorious activist Yayori Matsui and North Korean agents barred any media that attempted to point out its bias from entering the venue or conducting coverage.

NHK cannot possibly claim that it was unaware that this was not a legitimate proceeding.

To make matters worse, NHK staff themselves were also involved in the staging of that so-called tribunal.

The very fact that NHK broadcast such an event—bias incarnate—as if it were unquestionable truth was itself the core problem, and those involved in the program should naturally have been investigated and disciplined.

Regarding Producer Nagai, who tried to gain sympathy by shedding tears, the network said he would not be dismissed.
However, he should at least have been transferred due to his lack of qualifications, and that alone would have constituted an apology to the public.

At the same time, I had assumed that, taking this incident as a lesson, program producers would sincerely reflect for the sake of the fee-paying viewers and strive for fairness free from bias.

That was not the case.

The March 28, 2005, late-night broadcast of Close-Up Gendai displayed such a brutal level of bias that one might have thought the same Producer Nagai was again in charge.

This column continues.