04.05.05
Movie Company Scoops Up Outstanding Shares in Fuji TV
From UCLA Asia Media: A top stakeholder in Fuji Television Network upped its shares to more than 7 percent on April 4, apparently answering the company’s call to stave off a Livedoor Co. takeover. Toho Co., a major movie distributor and producer in Japan, bought 1.4 percent of the outstanding shares in Fuji TV to become the TV network’s third-largest investor. Livedoor, an Internet service provider, recently achieved its hostile takeover bid for Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., which, like Fuji TV, is a major asset of the Fujisankei media group.
— By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Erica Ogg
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04.03.05
NHK Replaces Entire Board of Directors
From Daily Yomiuri: On April 1, NHK President Genichi Hashimoto declared a new board of directors for the public broadcaster following an emergency session he called with the station’s management committee. According to Hashimoto, the quickness and unusual method of the replacement showed that the broadcaster was “caked with mud.” A number of scandals involving NHK employees caused many subscribers to stop paying their viewing fees. The new board of directors consists of all new faces, which indicates an attempt to rebuild viewers’ trust. All the board members under former NHK President Katsuji Ebisawa are now gone. In addition, Hashimoto appointed Toyohiko Harada, chief of NHK’s Nagoya bureau, who had reportedly distanced himself from Ebisawa. Critics say that replacing members of the board does not represent a total transformation of the public broadcaster. As Hashimoto pointed out, the pressing issue that some viewers pay the fee while others refuse still remains to be solved.
— By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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04.01.05
Asahi Censors Ad Accusing Paper of ‘Checkbook Journalism’
From The Japan Times: A partly blacked-out, quarter-page advertisement for a new weekly issue of Shukan Bunshun was published in the March 31 issue of The Asahi Shimbun. The magazine issue’s main story accused Asahi of “checkbook journalism” for accepting money from consumer loan company Takefuji Corp. to publish a year-long series of articles. Shukan Bunshun’s original headline read “People call it black journalism, 50 million yen that Asahi Shimbun received from Takefuji in ‘backdoor ad fee,’” and ran in many other major dailies. The ad in Asahi appeared without the phrase “People call it black journalism.” The newspaper says it does publish ads that defame its articles only when it considers them to be appropriate. Asahi’s advertising department requested that Shukan Bunshun change the headline, but the magazine declined, which resulted in the blacked-out passage by Asahi’s ad agency. Asahi admitted that it used 50 million yen ($460,000) from Takefuji for a series of articles in its weekly magazine, Shukan Asahi, from 2000 to 2001 without revealing the sponsor. But the newspaper claimed the Shukan Bunshun’s accusations were baseless. In response, Shukan Bunshun said, “The attitude of rejecting reports of facts that are unfavorable to the company could lead to the suppression of the freedom of speech and expression.”
— By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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