The newspaper explains how a program was revised.

The Asahi Shimbun in a one-page special Tuesday defended its Jan. 12 report on Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) caving in to political pressure, saying the article was based on interviews with the key players involved.

The special page appeared in the daily's Japanese-language morning edition.

NHK has since denied it revised a program aired in 2001 on wartime sex abuses because of pressure from two politicians, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa and Shinzo Abe, acting secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The public broadcaster has also demanded an apology and correction from the newspaper. Abe is also seeking an apology.

Tuesday's special page explained the process by which NHK officials, Nakagawa and Abe were interviewed for the Jan. 12 report.

The report said Nakagawa and Abe met with senior NHK officials the day before the program was aired in January 2001 and told them that the program was biased. One of the NHK officials said he had felt summoned by the LDP politicians.

The Asahi report said NHK then changed parts of the program before airing it.

Late last year, an NHK producer who was in charge of the program blew the whistle and said political pressure led to the changes.

The main claims made in NHK's protest to Asahi were that the meeting with Nakagawa was held three days after the program aired, and not before as was reported, that the program was edited in a routine way and that changes were not influenced by political pressure.

In Tuesday's Asahi, summaries of comments by Nakagawa and Abe both before and after the Jan. 12 report were printed.

Nakagawa admitted on Jan. 10 that he met with NHK executives before the revised program was broadcast.

An Asahi reporter asked Nakagawa, ``Did you ask that the program be cancelled?''

Nakagawa's response was: ``You can say that's what I said.''

But a day after the Asahi report appeared, Nakagawa told reporters the meeting was held after the broadcast and he never asked that the program be revised or cancelled.

Abe's comments to The Asahi Shimbun on Jan. 10 indicated he informed NHK executives about the need for neutrality in their reporting. But after the Asahi article ran, Abe said he never called NHK officials to his office and that he never asked that the program be revised.

An explanation was also given in the special page about the editing process for the NHK documentary on a mock war crimes trial that was broadcast on Jan. 30, 2001.

A 44-minute version approved for broadcast was completed on Jan. 28. However, major changes were made to the program on Jan. 29 after it was viewed by NHK executives, some of whom reportedly met with Nakagawa and Abe.

Three hours before the program was to air, more changes were ordered and a 40-minute version was eventually broadcast.

Masahiko Yokoi, city news editor for The Asahi Shimbun's Tokyo head office, explained on the special page that Asahi's reporting was based on the standpoint of what the appropriate distance should be between the public broadcaster and the political establishment.

``What has emerged from the latest incident is the attitude of politicians who are in a position to influence NHK through the budget and other Diet matters stating their opinion about programs before broadcast, and the stance of NHK officials offering explanations to such politicians before a broadcast,'' Yokoi wrote. ``The issue that is being addressed now is whether that stance of NHK is appropriate from the standpoint of freedom of expression and the press, which forms the very root of a democratic society.''

Article 3 of the Broadcast Law stipulates that broadcast programs are not subject to any kind of interference or restriction by anyone, except in cases where legitimate legal grounds for such acts exist.

Yokoi also explained how the report was put together.

``Information was obtained about an NHK employee in charge of the program who blew the whistle on his organization and claimed that `the contents were revised due to pressure from politicians,''' Yokoi said. ``We based our report on subsequent interviews of not only Abe and Nakagawa, the two politicians whose names emerged, but also officials affiliated with NHK.''(IHT/Asahi: January 19,2005)