A head of the news section at a regional newspaper has been punished with unpaid, indefinite suspension after slandering a lawyer and other people on a social network service website, the newspaper revealed Friday.
Hideki Sakamoto, a 53-year-old former news department chief of Niigata Nippo's Joetsu branch, was removed from his post and punished for publishing abusive messages on Twitter against Akira Takashima, a Niigata attorney who represented Minamata disease victims and their families in the prefecture.
The disease, which affects the nervous system, is caused by mercury poisoning.