The resignation March 16 of Mr. Shintaro Kubo as president of Nippon Television Network Corp., who took responsibility for an erroneous news report, underlines the importance of mass media people following the basics of journalism — obtaining evidence to support remarks made by news sources. The report falsely accused the Gifu prefectural government of continuing a slush fund.
In 2006, off-the-book money of about ¥1.7 billion surfaced in the Gifu government and more than 4,000 prefectural government workers were disciplined. On Nov. 23, the NTV program "Shinso Hodo Bankisha" showed a former construction company executive from Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture, saying the prefecture's construction office still maintained a slash fund and that he had sent ¥2 million to a prefectural government worker.
After the broadcast, the prefectural government carried out an internal investigation but did not find the irregularities alleged by the man. NTV officials also held a new meeting with the man, who admitted that he had made a false statement. In the same program aired March 1, NTV explained that the statement had been concocted and that the remittance record shown by the man had been fabricated. It apologized to viewers.