In May 2017, the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO) marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Committee for the Investigation of Broadcasting Ethics (hereinafter: “the Committee”). In 2007, a falsification scandal of a TV program Hakkutu! Aru-aru Dai-Jiten II, triggered a call for stricter regulations on broadcasting content, in response to which the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) and the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association (JBA) launched the Committee as an independent, third-party panel. Since then, it has been examining broadcasting content and investigating possible falsification/fabrication to judge the existence of ethical problems and issuing its “resolutions” in forms of “recommendations,” “views,” or “opinions” that are disclosed to the public.
The Committee has issued 25 resolutions over the past ten years (as of March 2017). Studying those resolutions, we can see that similar types of broadcasting ethics breach have been repeatedly committed. One of them is broadcasters’ airing fabricated evidence or comments in interviews in news programs. The second type of breach is observed in entertainment programs featuring factual events or competitions that included fabricated footage. The third type is election campaign reports that neglected fairness and impartiality. The Committee points out that broadcasters’ structural problems, such as production staff overloaded with work, are the root cause for the recurrence of same mistakes. It is becoming more important for the Committee to inform more people involved in program production, and beyond, of its roles and activities.