From Twitch comes the news that NHK, the Japanese public broadcasting company, and two production companies were fined US $16,529 by the Tokyo High Court after being found guilty of self-censorship in a documentary aired in 2001.

The documentary was about a mock trial of Emporer Hirohito for alleged war crimes in WWII, including the authorization of Japanese military brothels staffed by Asian slaves. Before airing the film, NHK executives met with then-chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe, now prime minister, and Shochi Nakagawa of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who voiced complaints about the anti-imperial tenor of the show and urged the broadcaster to be objective. NHK then re-edited the program, cutting out the guilty verdit at the end and the incriminating testimony of Japanese soldiers. The plaintiff, Violence Against Women in War — Network Japan brought suit, saying that they weren’t consulted on the re-edit. Abe and Nakagawa were not punished. NHK has been known to buckle to political pressure, especially the majority LDP party, which sets the broadcaster’s annual budget.

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