NHK said Thursday it has dismissed a camera operator for embezzlement and suspended another employee from work for seven days for false accounting, while imposing minor punishments on 12 others for insufficiently supervising the two.
The disclosure follows a series of scandals that have plagued the Tokyo-based public broadcaster, which is funded by fees paid by viewers. The 46-year-old chief camera operator embezzled 4,830 beer coupons worth 3.5 million yen from the broadcaster, which were to be provided to collaborators for news coverage, between June 2000 and last December while he was working at the Fukui branch of NHK.