NHK loses case over program revision

Japan's public broadcaster was ordered by a court yesterday to pay compensation for changing a program about Emperor Hirohito's wartime role after meeting with ruling party lawmakers including the current prime minister.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who at the time was deputy chief cabinet secretary, has said he met executives of broadcaster NHK and asked them to be "fair" in the show, which covered a mock trial that found Hirohito guilty of crimes against humanity.

NHK later aired the program without the footage of the verdict, leading one of the organizers of the trial, Violence Against Women in War-Network Japan (VAWW-NET), to sue the broadcaster for failing to explain the changes to them.