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Wednesday March 14, 10:29 PMGov't to order NHK to focus on abduction issue in radio programs(Kyodo) _ The telecom minister is set to renew a controversial order for Japan's public broadcaster NHK to focus on the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese in its shortwave international radio programs for fiscal 2007, ministry officials said.Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga asked the Radio Regulatory Council on Wednesday about whether to renew the order to NHK, formally Japan Broadcasting Corp., in line with the Broadcast Law, and the advisory panel judged the action appropriate at a meeting the same day, the officials said. Given the go-ahead, Suga is set to renew the order April 1, the first day of the fiscal year, citing a need to do so due to the lack of any major progress in the abduction issue since he first issued the unprecedented order in November last year. Such orders by the ministry for broadcasters are subject to review every year. But the council also urged the ministry to be mindful of NHK's editorial freedom, bearing in mind the criticism that a state order such as this could inhibit freedom of speech, the officials said. In a bid to allay such criticism, the ministry plans to soften the wording in the law to "urge" from the current "order" and present a bill to that end to the ongoing ordinary parliamentary session through June, they said. Meanwhile, the council also endorsed a proposal by the telecom minister to make NHK's international television service subject to the state's order about what can be broadcast, the officials said. The service will be partly funded by the state for the first time from fiscal 2007. NHK is chiefly funded by viewer fees. The order focusing on the abduction issue was among a number of one-year orders the ministry issues for NHK's programs following the law. But the order issued last fall has been a high-profile topic in Japan as it was the first time that the government specified an issue to be covered. |
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