Broadcasting Neutrality in Jeopardy

Freedom of speech consists of the basis of democracy. Democracy is a bottom-up system. If a chairman of public broadcasting organization promotes a reform with top-down order, it should not be called democracy. Such an undemocratic reform is going to be underway in Japan Broadcasting Corporation, or NHK.

New Chairman of NHK, Katsuto Momii, showed himself as a figure close to the revisionism of Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, in his press conference on Saturday. “Though I don’t mean it was right in wartime, that kind of things existed in every country,” told Momii on comfort woman, or wartime sex slave. “Was it about South Korea?” added Momii, “It was everywhere in war zone. Can we say it didn’t exist in Germany or France? It was everywhere in Europe. Why Netherland still has red light zone?”

Believe or not, that was a comment of the chairman of the biggest broadcasting corporation in Japan, which has great influence on journalism, culture, entertainment in Japan. The biggest problem of his comment was that he distinguished current moral value from past one, as Mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, did. “Comfort woman is wrong in current moral,” told Momii, “but it was the fact existed then. It is complicating for South Korea to say as if only Japan did that. Though they require money, it’s strange to raise the matter again that had been solved in a treaty between Japan and South Korea.”

Momii is a former president of Nihon Unisys, Ltd., which provides business service for information technology. It is unclear whether or not Abe administration was involved in the naming of him as the chairman of NHK, he has been recognized as a person whose mind was close to Abe. Some media doubted certain intervention of Abe to the succession of chairman of NHK.

However, as far as his comment in the conference is concerned, Momii looked supporting Abe administration. He rejected commenting on Abe’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine, saying “It was ok to see it as the prime minister did it with his own conviction.” On Senkaku Issue, he told NHK would explicitly appeal the standpoint of Japan and would not say “left” about what the government says “right.” After all, he did not show anything different from Abe’s standpoint.

The Broadcast Act requires every broadcasting corporation to be politically neutral. Momii’s comments supporting Abe in controversial issues would be doubted as a violation of the law. If Momii requires his staff in NHK to support Abe, it should be a distortion of journalism and democracy. It is not clear whether he realizes that.