BPO recognizes rights violation against Ms. Shin

BPO recognizes rights violation against Ms. Shin

Norikoe-net (Overcome-net) representative Sugo Shin (center) holding a press conference in the afternoon of March 8 at the Lower House Diet Members’ Office Building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo Prefecture


 

March 9, 2018 Ryukyu Shimpo

 

On March 8, the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) recognized Tokyo Metropolitan Television (Tokyo MX) had violated the rights of Sugo Shin, a representative of “Norikoe-net” (Overcome-net), a protest group against hate speech.

The violation took place on one of Tokyo MX’s programs, “News Jyoshi” (News Women).

The BPO submitted a written warning directing Tokyo MX to practice proper broadcasting protocol.

Within three months, Tokyo MX must also provide details of their recurrence prevention measures to the BPO.

 

 

Tokyo MX announced that it had received a warning for its news program from March 8.

It then announced that it would strive to prevent this from happening again.

However, it did not rectify or apologize for the issue.

 

 

Ms. Shin held a press conference and said, “I feel that BPO’s warning was an ethical decision on behalf of broadcasters” According to the agent, BPO will continue to appeal to Tokyo MX to take action that will prevent future rights violations, and if it fails to do so, BPO will consider taking legal action.

 

 

In the “News Jyoshi” episode that was aired in January of 2017, Tokyo MX had compared the citizens protesting the U.S. military Northern Training Area (NTA) helipad construction to terrorists and portrayed Ms. Shin as the mastermind.

The BPO determined the claims lacked evidence.

The BPO also determined the claims were defamatory and made their decision based on judicial precedents from the Supreme Court.

 

 

Regarding the issue of ethical broadcasting, the BPO pointed out two issues.

First, the content of the program was not flagged during the test run despite not interviewing Ms. Shin.

Secondly, the program stated that Koreans and Chinese are involved in protest activities.

The BPO pointed out that associating these characteristics to Ms. Shin, a Korean living in Japan, as “Not taking the necessary considerations when covering material on race and ethnicity.”

 

 

Tokyo MX commented, “We take this warning seriously. We will steadily implement the recurrence prevention measures that are already underway and will strive to promote broadcasting that can be trusted.”

 

 

(English translation by T&CT and Chelsea Ashimine)

 

 

Go to Japanese

 


　


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