TBS Violation of Media Ethics
The following case study can either be seen as 1) the militant relationship between one Japanese cult group and society, and mostly, 2) a violation of media ethics by a media organization.
First, the Aum Shinrikyo. Most of us would remember it as the cult group responsible for placing sarin gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995, an incident which killed 12 and hospitalized over 5,000, and led to a national backlash against cult groups in the country.
Basically, Aum believers were pressured to leave their families and abandon secular employment in favor of all-volunteer labor for the religion, frequently in the religion's computer-manufacturing business. Ordained members were also expected to donate all their resources. This naturally led relatives of Aum members to band together to take action against the group.
Sakamoto Tsutsumi was an attorney from Yokohama representing the interests of one such group of aggrieved relatives, and was interviewed in October 1989 (six years before the sarin attack) by the Tokyo Broadcasting Station (TBS). (See photo above for exterior view of TBS)
When Aum leaders later heard about the interview, they turned up at TBS and demanded to be shown the segment on Sakamoto, in which the lawyer called the group a "fake", and charging it with kidnapping, extortion and other crimes.
Aum leaders demanded that the broadcast be cancelled, and eventually a deal was struck, granting TBS an exclusive interview with Asahara Shoko, a key Aum leader, in return for the cancellation of the damaging critique by Sakamoto.
Two weeks after the deal was struck, Sakamoto, his wife, and infant son disappeared without a trace. An Aum badge was found in their apartment. An although TBS broadcast this news along with footage of people distributing handbills calling on anyone with information to come forward, the network remained silent about having shown Aum the video of Sakamoto threatening to expose the religion.
Later, Asahara granted the promised interview, but the interviewer made no inquiries into the possibility of an Aum connection with the Sakamoto affair.
Indeed, TBS remained silent about the event for 6 and a half years, until a Diet investigation was held that year. By that time, the bodies of the Sakamotos had been found at sites identified by Aum members.
TBS General Director Okawa Mitsuyuki initially denied that the network provided an advance showing of the program to Aum leaders, but later admitted that it did so and subsequently covered up the affair. Two staff members were dismissed, and Okawa was eventually forced to resign.
According to Helen Hardacre, the incident had shown how a network had protected its access to a religion at the expense of its duty to inform the public and the police.
As Hardacre wrote: "In keeping silent about Aum leaders' violent reaction to Sakamoto's views, TBS withheld information that could have led to the exposure of criminal activities in Aum a full six years before the Tokyo subway attack, probably preventing that disaster ... to say nothing of numerous kidnappings and unlawful confinements, the manufacture of weapons and illegal drugs, and the use of those drugs to silence dissidents."
First, the Aum Shinrikyo. Most of us would remember it as the cult group responsible for placing sarin gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995, an incident which killed 12 and hospitalized over 5,000, and led to a national backlash against cult groups in the country.
Basically, Aum believers were pressured to leave their families and abandon secular employment in favor of all-volunteer labor for the religion, frequently in the religion's computer-manufacturing business. Ordained members were also expected to donate all their resources. This naturally led relatives of Aum members to band together to take action against the group.
Sakamoto Tsutsumi was an attorney from Yokohama representing the interests of one such group of aggrieved relatives, and was interviewed in October 1989 (six years before the sarin attack) by the Tokyo Broadcasting Station (TBS). (See photo above for exterior view of TBS)
When Aum leaders later heard about the interview, they turned up at TBS and demanded to be shown the segment on Sakamoto, in which the lawyer called the group a "fake", and charging it with kidnapping, extortion and other crimes.
Aum leaders demanded that the broadcast be cancelled, and eventually a deal was struck, granting TBS an exclusive interview with Asahara Shoko, a key Aum leader, in return for the cancellation of the damaging critique by Sakamoto.
Two weeks after the deal was struck, Sakamoto, his wife, and infant son disappeared without a trace. An Aum badge was found in their apartment. An although TBS broadcast this news along with footage of people distributing handbills calling on anyone with information to come forward, the network remained silent about having shown Aum the video of Sakamoto threatening to expose the religion.
Later, Asahara granted the promised interview, but the interviewer made no inquiries into the possibility of an Aum connection with the Sakamoto affair.
Indeed, TBS remained silent about the event for 6 and a half years, until a Diet investigation was held that year. By that time, the bodies of the Sakamotos had been found at sites identified by Aum members.
TBS General Director Okawa Mitsuyuki initially denied that the network provided an advance showing of the program to Aum leaders, but later admitted that it did so and subsequently covered up the affair. Two staff members were dismissed, and Okawa was eventually forced to resign.
According to Helen Hardacre, the incident had shown how a network had protected its access to a religion at the expense of its duty to inform the public and the police.
As Hardacre wrote: "In keeping silent about Aum leaders' violent reaction to Sakamoto's views, TBS withheld information that could have led to the exposure of criminal activities in Aum a full six years before the Tokyo subway attack, probably preventing that disaster ... to say nothing of numerous kidnappings and unlawful confinements, the manufacture of weapons and illegal drugs, and the use of those drugs to silence dissidents."
posted by Maria Siow @ 1:25 AM
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